MILWAUKEE -- A Milwaukee family is hoping for a miracle before Christmas. They need someone to come forward to help save their little girl's life.
Jordyn Marie Jenkins is dying of liver failure, and her family does not know how much longer she can wait for an organ.
Jordyn Marie is a happy little girl with big brown eyes and love for everyone.
"She smiles at everybody. She waves at everybody," says Yvette Crite, Jordyn Marie's grandmother.
Her first birthday is Friday. But her family doesn't know if she will make it.
"We don't have much time at all. I've heard two days, I've heard three weeks," Crite says.
She has biliary atresia, which basically means her bile ducts don't work. Doctors tried to do a procedure when she was 3 months old to give her a normal life, but now she is now experiencing liver failure.
Jordyn Marie's condition has only gotten worse. Her family rushed her to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin Sunday morning when she started throwing up blood.
"As soon as we got here she stopped breathing," says Britney Jenkins, Jordyn Marie's mother.
Jenkins and her family could only wait and watch as doctors revived her.
"It's so scary going through this," Jenkins says.
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin says Jordyn Marie is one of almost a dozen kids in just their hospital in some form of liver failure.
"The need is growing and it's real. Our list has tripled since I have been here in the last year and a half," says Dr. Michael Zimmerman, transplant doctor.
Doctors have already told Jenkins and her mother they are not able to donate part of their liver to save Jordyn Marie. So they have to rely on someone coming forward as a living donor, or hope the family of someone who passes away donates their organs.
"We want her to have a chance to live her life," Crite says.
If you want sign up to be an organ donor go to Donate Life Wisconsin or Transplant Living.
