During a time when we get a lot of bad or polarizing news about the world, it’s important to highlight the good stuff – so here is some good stuff for you!
Steven Tenney, a police lieutenant from Keene, N.H., donated a piece of his liver to 4-month-old Sloan St. James, who suffers from biliary atresia. To learn more about biliary atresia, click here.
And he had never met her or her family before!
“Honestly, I am humbled,” said Steven to the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Blog. “I don’t think of myself as a hero. I did what I had to do.”
Biliary atresia is a disease of the bile ducts that affects only infants. The bile ducts become inflamed and blocked soon after birth, causing bile to remain in the liver, where it starts to destroy cells rapidly, and can eventually cause cirrhosis.
Baby Sloan had been on a waiting list for a liver transplant – and things weren’t looking so great. But luckily, Steven had heard about Sloan’s story from social media, and contacted the children’s hospital to evaluate himself as a donor. The rest is history!
“If you can help a 4-month-old baby, you kind of have to do it,” said Steven.
Can’t argue with that logic!
We can’t stop being good samaritans – the world needs our compassion and good deeds now more than ever! And this story only fortifies the power of social media and the importance of a rare disease community, so keep reading and sharing these stories.
Judging by the picture taken when Sloan and Steven finally met, which you can see here, Sloan seems pretty stoked to meet her hero.
Thank you, Lt. Steven Tenney!
You can read more about Sloan and Steven on USA Today here!
