Mother gives second gift of life to medically troubled daughter

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A Columbus family is calling it a Mother’s Day Miracle. At 13 months old, Adeline Rollins had a live liver transplant.

The live donor was her mother.

The live-saving surgery and a community full of love makes this Mother’s Day a celebration.

You can’t tell it by the smile on her face now, but soon after baby Adeline was born in December of 2016, her mom, Margaret, knew something was wrong.

“It all started on News Years Eve. That was our first ER visit. We took her to the ER in Jackson and the next week we started having specialist appointments, and since there’s been something every week,” said Adeline’s mother, Margaret Rollins.

Adeline’s angel, Nurse Practitioner Amy Robertson, made the startling discovery. Adeline was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia, a rare liver disease.

“We can’t put it off so I actually went to her in laws house that night and told them,” said Amy Robertson.

The Rollins family, devastated.

“It was very hard to process. That was the hardest part to process in this journey was the early days and that first surgery. The unknown. Not knowing anything about the disease. I think we both hit the floor, literally hit the floor in his mother’s basement and couldn’t get up for awhile,” said Margaret and John Michael Rollins.

The first surgery didn’t work. Doctors in Atlanta decided a liver transplant needed to happen.

This wasn’t just any transplant. It was a live liver transplant. An operation that hadn’t happened in years.

Margaret and Adeline were a perfect match.

“I did what any parent would do. I did what he would have done if he could. He could of donated. He wasn’t a blood match, so, it’s a just our story,” said Margaret.

A story they want to share with everyone.

Margaret and John Michael are continuing Adeline’s fight by sharing the importance of organ donation, because it saved their daughters life.

“From where she was, seeing how sick she was, how miserable she seemed, we honestly didn’t know how miserable she obviously was, because it was our normal. She was that way her entire life. Seeing her now, it’s a miracle,” said Margaret.

With no more feeding tubes. She gets to play with big brother Walker and she’s even learning how to stand on her own two feet.

“There were many days I thought, she wasn’t going to make it through, then she started eating food and just she was happy,” said Robertson.

A miraculous journey shared by so many here in Columbus

“People just love her like she’s their own, so we’re thankful for everybody,” said Margaret.

The Rollins family says the support from Columbus and their jobs have helped get them through, and there’s so many little things that have been a blessing to them.

Margaret says a Phlebotomist at Baptist Golden Triangle makes her schedule fit for Adeline because she’s the only one who can get to the tiny veins.

Adeline still has monthly check ups.

To follow Adeline’s story visit their Facebook page www.facebook.com/adelinesfight/.