Mother seeking help for three-month-old baby in need of liver transplant

Christina Jagernauth is pleading for the public’s assistance to save her three-month-old daughter, baby Alia, who has been diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare and life-threatening liver condition.

Biliary atresia affects babies and occurs when bile ducts that carry bile from the liver to the intestine are blocked. Bile is a yellow-green fluid made by the liver, it helps the body digest fats in food and get rid of waste products from the liver.

According to Jagernauth, baby Alia was born on June 28, 2025, and appeared healthy at birth. However, later that night, the newborn began vomiting and weeks later she was diagnosed with liver failure.

Currently, liver transplant surgeries are not done in Guyana and so Jagernauth is seeking assistance for the procedure to be done overseas in Jamaica.

Alia spent the first 15 days of her life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

After she was discharged, her mother said doctors told them to follow up in two months. At the two-month visit, doctors conducted more tests and Alia was again admitted to the hospital.

“After they did the blood tests and MRI, the doctors told me that my baby’s liver was damaged and that her gallbladder was missing. They said she would need a liver transplant as soon as possible,” Jagernauth told the News Room.

According to an official document from the hospital, surgical intervention is most effective within 70 to 90 days after birth through a procedure known as hepatic portoenterostomy (Kasai procedure).

However, Alia’s diagnosis came after that critical window, leaving a liver transplant as her only viable option.

A visibly emotional Jagernauth said the infant cries a lot because she is in pain.

“I am begging the public for help. My baby needs a liver transplant as soon as possible,” she pleaded.

Those willing to assist the family, kindly contact Christina Jagernauth on +592 658 4942.