'We were just watching thinking 'she's just not getting a chance. This is not a good life for a little kid.'' 9News
are signing up to be organ donors in record numbers, according to new data from the national body tasked with improving donation rates.
A campaign by DonateLife and community concern over a potential health crisis due to COVID-19 also rallied everyday Australians to sign up. "The relationship ICU staff have with families is critical in being able to explain their loved one is not going to make it, but would they be willing to consider donating their organs, to save the lives of other Australians… being able to do that face-to-face is so important," said Professor Steven Chadban, the co-chair of the National Transplantation and Donation Taskforce.
In 2019 she underwent a Kasai procedure at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, a surgery designed to redirect bile from the liver into the intestine. Reliving that time, Riley's father Rob said "we were just watching thinking 'she's just not getting a chance. This is not a good life for a little kid.'"
But not giving up, the Swander family looked into live donation, finding that Riley's father Rob had the same blood type.