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Otsego High School teen receives life-saving liver transplant after months on registry list

Isabella Diaz was battling end-stage liver disease. She was on the transplant list for months until a gift from a 17-year-old in Philadelphia changed her life.

HASKINS, Ohio — It's a story that's come full circle for an Otsego High School teen who received a liver this month on Good Friday. It just so happened to happen during Donate Life Month, too.

WTOL 11's Trent Croci sat down with 15-year-old Isabella Diaz and her family in September when they shared she was battling end-stage liver disease and needed a liver. 

Her mother, Jenn Diaz, adopted Isabella at birth, knowing Isabella would eventually need a transplant just like her biological mother, but she didn't think that the need would come so soon.

She was put on the national transplant registry days after our interview in September, but it wasn't until this month that the family received the lifesaving gift of a liver. It was from Philadelphia and a family who lost their 17-year-old son.

After months of being on the transplant list, over 80 applications, and their own cousin being turned down earlier in April, they were finally able to receive the gift of a lifetime for Isabella at the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital.

"We had Tigers tickets, box seats behind Boston Redsox plates. We were ready to go, but we knew Isabella had a bigger game to play that day," Diaz said. So, we got our family ready, went to Cleveland and we waited."

The family waited hours as doctors made sure the liver wasn't lacerated from the donor's body. It was just around midnight they were able to go ahead with the surgery and Diaz says everything would change.

Diaz said her daughter had been suffering from a protein deficiency in her liver called Alpha-1 Anti Trypsin Deficiency since she was 6 weeks old.

Jenn shared the desperate need for a new liver as Isabella's condition grew worse. Her liver failure was affecting her memory due to the ammonia being built up in her body. 

Isabella was discharged from the Cleveland Clinic on Friday. She will be resting and recovering at the Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland with her family for the coming weeks.

"Falls right around the corner, she wants to cheer. She's been waiting all year to do that," Diaz said. "She's been waiting a year for her life and it's time for Isabella to come back with her story."

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