Nanny Donates Liver to Save Young Girl She Knew for Three Weeks

Kiersten Miles, a 22-year-old University of Pennsylvania student, had only been a nanny for Jackson, New Jersey family the Roskos for three weeks last summer when she found out that their young daughter Talia had a rare and potentially deadly liver condition. As a result, she required a transplant.

Upon learning the news, Miles near-immediately wanted to see if she was compatible as a potential liver donor for the girl young.  When she told the child’s parents, her father could only respond in shock.

“I was like really, because that’s like a big deal,” Talia’s father George Rosko told CBS New York.

After months of physical and psychological tests, it was determined that the college student was in fact a match. The surgery took place on January 11, with doctors removing a part of her liver and implanting it in the little girl. Both patients made it through surgery with flying color, and are doing well.

Kiersten Miles’ kind donation is unfortunately a rarity. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, new patients are added to the transplant list at an average of one per minute, however only 48% of U.S. adults are registered organ donors, leaving the number of potential organs for donation woefully inadequate compared to those who need them.

For her part, the decision to donate was a simple one for Kiersten Miles.

“It’s such a small sacrifice when you compare it to saving a life,” she said. “Some of her doctors said she possibly wouldn’t have made it past 2 years old. All I had to do was be in the hospital for a week and a 5-inch scar.”

The 16-month-old’s grateful parents expressed nothing but gratitude for their daughter’s new chance at life.

“I could tell you thank you every day for the rest of my life and it would never be enough,” her father continued to CBS.