We are so honored and excited to introduce you to brave and sweet Lucas! It was discovered by doctors early on in Lucas life that he also had biliary atresia, which is the shortening and narrowing of the bile ducts that don’t connect properly from his liver to his small intestine. Lucas needed an entire new liver to survive. He received his miracle liver donation from his guardian angel 3 year old, Olivia Swedberg, who passed away on June 30. Lucas underwent transplant surgery on July 1, 2015.
Lucas before sugery
Hi! My name is Lucas and I am 2 years old with end-stage liver disease. According to my doctors, my time is Children’s Hospital in ICU twice, on a ventilator twice, have had 2 major surgeries, 3 blood transfusions, under anesthesia 5 times, have been hospitalized 2 times over a month straight with additional multiple week stays. I cannot walk on my own & I have very little muscle development. My liver & spleen are so big that my lungs can't expand making it hard for me to breathe.
Lucas Goeller-Love Saves T-shirt
Little Lucas wearing his GoShoutLove T-shirt that picture himself and his guardian angel, sweet Olivia Swedberg.
Lucas Goeller-Featured Child Aug2015
We are so honored and excited to introduce you to brave and sweet Lucas! It was discovered by doctors early on in Lucas life that he also had biliary atresia, which is the shortening and narrowing of the bile ducts that don’t connect properly from his liver to his small intestine. Lucas needed an entire new liver to survive. He received his miracle liver donation from his guardian angel 3 year old, Olivia Swedberg, who passed away on June 30. Lucas underwent transplant surgery on July 1, 2015.
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Lucas’s Story
We are so honored and excited to introduce our August featured child, brave and sweet little Lucas Goeller.
Lucas is a two-year-old little boy living in Pittsburgh, PA. He has been on a very long and intense journey since the day he was born, and is surrounded by a loving army of supporters determined to see him get healthy.
The moment Lucas was born, his mother, Jessica, held him in her arms and knew something was wrong. He immediately underwent surgery and had ten inches of his colon removed, due to volvulus, which is the twisting of the intestine that causes death of the tissue. He was then jaundiced for several months until it was discovered by doctors that he also had biliary atresia, which is the shortening and narrowing of the bile ducts that don’t connect properly from his liver to his small intestine. Since Lucas was born he has been in the ICU twice, on a ventilator twice, has had two major surgeries, three blood transfusions, under anesthesia five times, and has been hospitalized two times for over a month straight with additional multiple week stays.
Lucas has not been able to walk on his own and has very little muscle development. He was sick almost every day with vomiting and diarrhea and his liver and spleen were getting so big that his lungs could not expand, making it hard for him to breathe. Lucas was in desperate need for a new liver. He had to receive a whole liver, which meant it would have to come from someone who had passed away. He had been on the transplant list for more than half of his short two years of life.
Last year, the doctors predicted Lucas to have six months to live, but he surpassed that time this past spring, although he was declining. Lucas’s family decided it was time to step in and a group of them banded together to create the “Save Lucas” campaign, as they decided he no longer had the time to wait on a list for a liver that never seemed to be coming. They put the “Save Lucas” campaign on social media and it took off like wildfire. The social media campaign and their Go Fund Me account were started on June 15th. Lucas’ story received thousands and thousands of shares and the Pittsburgh community swarmed around this family offering support, encouragement and love. Lucas’ face and story were all over Pittsburgh being featured on billboards, news stations, and soon his story began to spread all across the United States in order to find a liver. On July 1st the miracle came – Lucas received his liver.
Lucas’ donor was a little girl named Olivia who passed away from DIPG, a terminal brain cancer on June 30, 2015. Olivia was a sweet and beautiful little girl full of joy, smiles, and love. She was surrounded by amazing family who wanted to give the gift of organ donation so that other individuals could have the gift of life through sweet Olivia. Olivia’s gift through organ donation saved Lucas and several other individuals. It took less than two weeks for Olivia’s mother to find out about Lucas through social media and to adopt him as her own. Lucas is 0- blood type and Olivia was ABO. Lucas was declining so rapidly that his doctor’s felt that they could do the transplant successfully even though the liver wasn’t a direct match.
Since the transplant, Lucas has encountered some roadblocks, but his amazing team of doctors are working diligently to treat his body’s rejection of the ABO liver. These beautiful words from Lucas’ aunt are exactly what we hope to see soon from Lucas – “We pray constantly for God’s blessing and a full, healthy recovery. I have a vision of him a year from now, running around at Great Grandma’s farm catching fireflies with his brother.”
Let’s rally around this amazing family and loudly shout love for Lucas throughout the month of August (and beyond!) while he continues to battle the rejection of the ABO liver and while he battles to get better.
Follow the links to Lucas's Facebook page and website and donation page below:
https://www.facebook.com/SaveLucasGoeller
http://savelucasgoeller.com/
https://www.gofundme.com/x2a682ag
Below is the families email address if you would like to send Lucas some love or words of encouragement : kankosj@hotmail.com
