After years of surgeries, a Calhoun senior shines

Before Gillian Cohen had her liver replaced on April 17, 2005, when she was 7 years old, the scleras of her eyes had never before been white, recalled her mother, Pam. From birth, they were always a dull yellow. Her skin was jaundiced as well, and it itched –– without relief.

Then a cancerous tumor lodged in her liver.

Gillian suffered from biliary artresia, a congenital birth defect that causes a blockage in the bile duct of the liver or small intestine. It affects 1 in 15,000 people, according to baaware.org. In Gillian’s case, it was her liver.

She nearly died.

When she was born, she had a temporary drain inserted in her liver to process bile that had built up. The aggressive tumor appeared when she was 7. She required a liver transplant. Her name was placed at the top of the regional pediatric transplant list for the United Network for Organ Sharing as a Status I case, meaning that she had but days to live without a new liver.

Gillian’s mother was cleared to give her part of her liver, but then a donation came in. A 26-year-old woman from out of state had died in a car crash. Gillian received the transplant surgery that she so desperately needed at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.

Within a short time, her eyes and skin whitened, and her itching disappeared. She survived.

A survivor is honored
This reporter first profiled Gillian in the months after her liver transplant. Now, 10 years later, she will graduate from Calhoun High School in Merrick on June 28 and attend LIU Post in Brookville. She will live at home and commute to college. She said she’s excited to enter a new phase of her life.