Mother donates part of her own liver to save 8-year-old daughter’s life

ST. LOUIS (KMOV/Gray News) - When her 8-year-old daughter needed a transplant, an Arkansas mother looked within and found the strength to donate part of her own liver.

Esmay Stage, along with her identical twin, was born prematurely. Four months into Esmay’s life, she had a brain bleed, leading to a more than eight-hour surgery. She was later diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare and serious liver disease, and was put on the list for a transplant.

“We were given six months for her,” said Esmay’s mother, Halie Stage. “But she actually turned around and did way better than they thought, so we made it to 8 years.”

Doctors told the family last year that it was time for Esmay’s transplant. To save her daughter’s life, Stage looked within.

“I’ve known since she was a baby – I got tested, and I was a match,” the mother said. “As a parent, you do whatever you have to do.”

The transplant brought the family to St. Louis, where doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital helped Stage donate part of her liver to Esmay, who was just steps away at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

“We haven’t done a mother to daughter in our new era of doing living donations, so that was really unique,” said Dr. Majella Doyle, a Washington University transplant surgeon at the children’s hospital.

Now, the Stages are back home in Arkansas but making a couple of stops back in St. Louis for checkups.