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Niles liver donor and little girl whose life is becoming normal meet for the first time
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Jamie is only 5 years old and surely didn’t understand why the man she met Monday for the first time is so special.
At the same time, David Denovcheck, 28, of Niles admits he was a little nervous to meet Jamie, not having a lot of exposure to children in his life.
Yet, David and Jamie warmed up after a few minutes, with Jamie finding David fun to play with in a room full of doting adults at Trumbull County Children Services during the reunion between the girl who desperately needed a liver earlier this year and the complete stranger who provided one.
They laughed as Jamie fed David corn chips, and Jamie didn’t seem to notice as a bunch of reporters gathered around to capture the moment.
David donated part of his liver to Jamie on May 27 at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital of UPMC. She needed the transplant because of a debilitating condition called biliary atresia, a condition in which inflammation develops within the bile ducts around the time of birth.
Her health was deteriorating, and doctors believed she might live only a few more weeks without a donation.
Marilyn Pape, a supervisor at children services, went to the public in February and March of this year, asking for a liver donor for Jamie, who has been in children services custody since birth.
David was one of the best matches initially, and he continued to be the best choice after testing and interviews.
Jamie and David have spent many months recovering from their surgeries, with David now back to work and back to his normal life.
After Jamie raced David around the room, he said it was gratifying to see how Jamie’s life is progressing.
“She’s like a normal kid. It’s awesome,” he said.
Jamie’s road back has been challenging. She went home to life with her foster family in late August, but she suffered a leg fracture because her condition made it difficult for her to get enough calcium.
Doctors still have her on a feeding tube so she can get all the medication and nutrition she needs.
And her foster parents, who intend to adopt her, are doing their best to protect her from germs, so she still has to remain apart from anyone with any flulike symptoms or other illnesses.
But she is now stable enough so that Jamie, her foster parents and more than a dozen children services workers could attend as Jamie and David had their initial meeting.
It was a celebration as Jamie ate lunch, played and talked to all of the adults.
“She’s A-1 perfect,” her foster dad said Monday. She needs only to go to doctor visits every three months now, he said. She got to go out a little while for trick-or-treating on Halloween, he said, and they took her to a movie recently.
Jamie’s foster parents are not being identified for the child’s safety.
“Really, our next obstacle is preschool,” her foster father said. That is likely to take place in January. Her foster parents are fearful of her having another fracture, so they are careful to keep her from falling. They carry her up and down steps, for instance.
She lives with her biological brother at her foster parents’ house, and the family has two other children, so her home life is pretty full.
“She’s full of life. She’s the center of everybody’s world,” her foster dad added.