A photograph from 1998 shows Hannah Fleming, who was 8 months old at the time, wearing a white, oversized T-shirt and lying in a hospital bed.
With a beaming smile, she appeared to be a very happy baby, but in reality, she was very sick and in desperate need of a new liver.
Doctors had told her parents that their baby girl might not live to see her first birthday.
“When I was born, they knew that something was wrong immediately,” Fleming said. “After months of testing and procedures, that’s when they found out I was in liver failure.”
She was diagnosed with biliary atresia, and her family was referred to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where she ultimately had a liver transplant in October 1998.
Fleming said she had never spoken publicly about her emotional journey until last month when she explained her story to a crowd at a Lifebanc presentation.
“Oct. 29, 1998, just an 8-month-old, I finally received the liver I waited so long for,” she told the attendees as she fought back tears.