Nurse Decides to Donate Liver for 8-Year-Old Boy Because His Family Members Did Not Match

A kind-hearted nurse gave a little boy a second chance at life by donating a part of her liver to him in life-saving surgery. Her good deed has informed a new cause to promote liver donation.

8-year-old Brayden Auten spent months recovering after undergoing a liver transplant to beat a life-threatening ailment. But his recovery was almost never possible.

The tot’s predicament began after he suddenly fell sick in 2019 and was admitted to the Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doctors discovered the young lad had contracted a deadly virus, which was aggressively attacking his liver.

The result of the CT scan showed the boy’s liver was functioning incorrectly. Days later, Brayden’s liver stopped working. Brayden’s dad, James Auten, explained:

“We were terrified. We didn’t know what was going on for the first week. As parents, we just wanted to know what was going on with our son.”

Having lost the organ to the virus, the boy urgently needed a liver transplant, which his relatives were willing to facilitate.

However, it turned out none of his family members were eligible to donate to the tot. News of the boy’s predicament soon spread to other hospitals, including the Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, where ICU nurse Cami Loritz worked.

Loritz immediately became interested in saving Brayden and turned out to be a perfect match. They went through with the liver transplant successfully in May 2019, restoring the youngster to health.

The ICU nurse explained her interest in saving the young lad, saying no eight-year-old deserved to die so unfairly. Although the nurse opted to stay anonymous the whole time, the family soon got to meet their life-saver.

Brayden’s warm embrace upon meeting the nurse was all the reassurance Loritz needed to know she did the right thing. She recalled: “It was fun meeting him and seeing him, like starting to feel better. I had no reason not to go through it.”

Four months after the liver transplant, the ICU nurse took to Facebook to appreciate everyone who supported her and Brayden through the surgery and their recovery phase.

She expressed how glad she was to see the young lad finally recover and be able to experience his childhood to the fullest once again.

Utilizing the medium, Loritz explained the concept of living organ donation, encouraging more people to join the cause, to balance the deficit between “the number of organs needed and the number of organs available.”

Her call to action seemed to touch many hearts, as several people took to the comments section to commend the nurse’s kindness and bravery.

Others admitted hers and Brayden’s story inspired them to partake in the life-saving cause by helping spread the word and becoming active donors.