Luka, 22 months old, has already endured more than most people face in a lifetime. His resilience has inspired everyone around him, especially his mother.
Utah: It is often said that parents will do anything for their children, and for 30-year-old Ashlynn Moss of Salt Lake City, Utah, those words couldn’t be truer. To save her newborn son, Luka, from liver failure, she underwent major surgery—donating part of her own liver.
Ashlynn and her husband welcomed Luka on November 13, 2023. But joy quickly turned to fear when their newborn developed severe jaundice within days of birth. Despite phototherapy treatments, his condition worsened, and at just 14 days old, he underwent a liver biopsy. Doctors soon confirmed the devastating diagnosis: biliary atresia, a rare liver disease in which bile ducts are blocked or underdeveloped, preventing bile from draining.
Seeking a Liver Transplant
The only immediate option was the Kasai procedure, where surgeons removed the blocked bile ducts outside the liver and created a new pathway using a section of Luka’s intestine. Performed when he was only weeks old, the surgery aimed to delay liver failure. Sadly, by April 2024, it became clear the procedure had failed. Luka was officially listed for a liver transplant.
Ashlynn and her husband immediately applied to be donors. In June, they received a call that a liver was available from Kansas. But their relief quickly turned to heartbreak when flight delays left the organ unusable. “The silence in that room could be heard around the world,” Ashlynn recalled.
By six months old, Luka’s condition had reached end-stage liver failure. His tiny body was swollen, and his skin and eyes had turned yellow. Time was running out—until doctors discovered Ashlynn was a perfect living donor match.
On June 26, 2024, Ashlynn underwent a six-hour surgery in which 22 percent of her left liver lobe was removed. Her liver portion was personally delivered to the children’s hospital, where surgeons performed an eight-hour transplant on Luka.
Luka the Little Warrior
Recovery was grueling for Ashlynn, but her focus never wavered. “I didn’t care how I was feeling,” she said. “What mattered was that Luka was stable.” After three days in the hospital, she was discharged and reunited with her son.
Today, Luka is thriving. He takes daily anti-rejection medication and undergoes monthly lab tests to monitor his liver function. Unless he has any complications, he shouldn’t require any further surgeries.
Though only 22 months old, Luka has already endured more than most people face in a lifetime. His resilience has inspired everyone around him, especially his mother, who says she would “do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
Ashlynn’s journey is not just a story of medical triumph, but of the immeasurable love of a mother who gave part of herself—literally—to ensure her child could live.
Source: Newsweek
