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Mere months after Kiersten Miles began babysitting for the Roskos, she offered to change their 16-month-old daughter, Talia's life forever.
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via: Inside Edition
But little Talia, she quickly learned, was quite sick.
As Talia’s parents, George and Farra Rosko, told The Huffington Post, just nine weeks after their daughter’s birth, doctors reveals she was suffering from biliary atresia.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases calls this rare disease, “a life-threatening condition in infants in which the bile ducts inside or outside the liver do not have normal openings.”
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via: Distractify
As Kiersten began connecting more with little Talia, it didn’t take long before the college student studying special education spiraled down her own biliary atresia researching rabbit hole.
“I was just curious, I guess,” she said.
Was there any possible way she could help improve Talia’s quality of life? Or even better…prolong Talia’s lifespan?
She began connecting dots. Talia needed a transplant. Kiersten’s own blood type was O…that of a universal donor…
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via: The Washington Post/Courtesy of Rosko Family
After consulting with her own mother and getting the OK, Kiersten prepared to present the Rosko’s with her transplant idea.
She was nervous, but eventually sat Farra Rosko down and, “I just told her I had done some research, and I wanted to fill out the paperwork to see if I was a match.”
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via: The Washington Post/Courtesy of Rosko Family
“This is a serious thing,” she says she immediately fired back at Kiersten. “This is not like donating blood.”
Farra said she responded in this way because, “I was very taken aback. I didn’t know that she was this selfless — I’ve come to find out that this is who she is. She really is an angel on earth; I know that sounds silly, but she really is.”
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In January, 2017, the two girls went in for their transplant surgery.
Farra said, “Once they had taken [the piece of] the liver out, they told us. That’s a pretty powerful moment. When it was happening, it was surreal.”
And once Talia subsequently woke up, part of Kiersten’s liver safely nestled into her little body, Farra said, “she looked up and said, ‘Mama.’ It was miraculous.”
Once Kiersten woke up, her first instinct was to check in on Talia.
She said, “I don’t know if it was all the emotions building up over time, but I asked one of the surgeons if I could see Talia. He told me that I could definitely see her in the next couple of days. He said she was doing great. And when he left, I just started bawling.
“I think I was just really happy and really relieved at the same time.”
Eventually, the two reunited in a magical moment, one of many that have since flooded in Kiersten’s direction.
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