Fast Facts About Shannon
June
21, 1990 - Shannon was born.
August, 1990 - Shannon was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare and
life-threatening liver disease.
August, 1990 - At the age of 7 weeks, Shannon had her first surgery,
a Kasai, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC.
October, 1990 - Shannon's mom feared that the surgery did not work
and Shannon would need a liver transplant.
October, 1990 - Doctors in NY confirmed that Shannon needed a
transplant, and without one she would die by her second birthday.
December, 1990 - Shannon and her mother, Kelly traveled to the
University of Chicago for evaluation for the living donor liver transplant,
an experimental procedure which involved removing a portion of a parent's
liver and transplanting it into the child.
December, 1990 - Doctors in Chicago told Kelly she was a match for
her daughter.
Mid-January, 1991 - Fr. Mychal Judge visited Shannon and her family
at their home in NJ to bless her before leaving for Chicago.
January 29, 1991 - At the age of 7 months, Shannon become the
country's 17th patient to receive a liver from a living donor at the
University of Chicago Hospitals. She required 3 subsequent surgeries, but
the transplant was successful.
March, 1991 - Shannon returned home to NJ.
June 21, 1991 - Shannon celebrated her first birthday.
June 21, 1992 - Shannon celebrated her second birthday, the day
doctors feared she would not live to see.
Winter, 1992 - Shannon and her family traveled to NYC to see Fr.
Mychal Judge.
July, 1997 - Shannon developed post-transplant, auto-immune
hepatitis. She began a course of steroid treatment which would last several
years.
September 11, 2001 - Shannon lost her hero, Fr. Mychal Judge, when he
was hit by debris and killed in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Center in NYC.
January 29, 2002 - Shannon collected "Socks for the Homeless" on her
11th transplant anniversary. It was a way to celebrate her life by
remembering Fr. Mychal's.
February, 2002 - Socks were distributed to the homeless on the
Breadline in NYC. A hand-made prayer card was attached to each pair of
socks. During the distribution of those socks, Mychal's Message was born.
Fall, 2002 - Shannon was able to stop taking the steroid medication.
A liver biopsy confirmed that her liver was functioning as that of a patient
who'd never been transplanted.
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This page was last updated on: May 31, 2005.
Mychal's Message, Inc. is registered as a charitable organization with the Department of State's Bureau of Charitable Organizations under the Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act, 10 P.S. Section 16.2 et seq., and is authorized to solicit charitable contributions under the conditions and limitations set forth under the Act. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of State, Bureau of Charitable Organizations