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Two-week-old baby given one month to live, looking for liver donor
Posted: 10.09.2012 at 3:57 PM
Kate Allt

Kate Allt is a news reporter with KTVO

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Jennifer Miller's two-week-old son, Jordy, needs a new liver to live.  / Courtesy Erin Reed
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CENTERVILLE, IOWA -- Friday, September 28th, Jennifer Miller of Centerville gave birth to her first child - a baby boy named Jordy. Jennifer has always wanted a child, but within the first few days of Jordy's life, the good news turned to bad.

"They found that he had a clotting disorder at that time and then sent him on to Iowa City, where Iowa City found he was having acute liver failure," said Jennifer's friend Erin Reed. "So at this point, they have sent him on to Chicago, the Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois and they are waiting on donors so he can get a transplant."

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A transplant of this nature costs around $600,000 and Jennifer's insurance is of little help. Without a transplant, doctors are giving Jordy a month to live, and friends and family are now rallying around the new family for fundraising and support.

"It's been, obviously, very rough on everyone, especially Jennifer, it's been rough on all her friends and family and we're just hoping we can get her the support she needs with the liver transplant," Reed said. "Or even, I know a lot of people have contacted me wanting to help financially, give money and we have just set up an account here in Centerville at Iowa Trust, the Jordy Miller Benefit fund, if anyone would want to make a donation there too. But it's been a long process, there's been a lot of ups and downs, first we hear good news, then we hear bad news, so we're just trying to stay at an even lull at this point and any news that we hear, we're just taking and seeing what we can do with it. I've done a lot of research, there are a lot of kids that have survived this type of transplant and we've heard a lot of really good stories, but when it's your own, and it's one of your friends, it makes it pretty rough."

Jennifer and Jordy are looking for a donor age 18 to 50, who is blood type A or O. Anyone who is interested in helping Jordy can fill out a form and fax it to Lurie Children's Hospital at 312-227-9712. If the doctors see a form that interests them, the candidate will go to Chicago for further scans and screenings.

If you would like to make a monetary donation to help with traveling expenses and the cost of Jordy's medical care, you can make checks payable to the Jordy Miller Benefit Fund and send them to the Iowa Trust and Savings Bank at 200 North 10th Street, Centerville, Iowa 52544.

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