KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. He received this story idea from a tip emailed from a friend of the family. Share your story idea with Tod.
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Last Thanksgiving was a tough one for Ciera Chronister and her newborn daughter, Olivia.
Born in late October 2024 with biliary atresia, a rare liver disorder that blocks bile from reaching the small intestine, Olivia underwent a Kasai procedure and spent the holiday at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
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Now, the family is excited for a quiet — and relatively normal — Thanksgiving after dozens of hospital visits culminated with a liver transplant three months ago.
“I've got pictures popping up from memories,” Chronister said. “It's hard to believe that it's already been a year and just how much we've already gone through.”
The Kasai procedure bought Olivia time — biliary atresia can be fatal — but she was always likely to need a transplant.
“August 11th was a roller coaster of emotions, but honestly, the best day of our lives,” Chronister said.
Seeing Olivia on a ventilator, with IV needles and various tubes crisscrossing her body, brought Ciera to tears.
“There was an overload of emotions,” Chronister said. “It was very hard seeing her like that, hooked up to all of the tubes and the ventilator.”
But those fearful tears were soon mixed with joyful ones.
“When I saw her eyes and she opened them up at me, I just felt a sense of relief like this,” Chronister said. “I thought, ‘This is the end of this nightmare that we've been through.'"
Gone was the yellow tint in Olivia’s eyes and the olive complexion to her skin.
“Almost immediately after the transplant surgery, when she came back up to the recovery room, she was already turning a normal color,” Chronister said.
Chronister said she was like a "whole new baby" with "a lot more energy."
“She seems happier. She doesn't seem so uncomfortable," Chronister said. "She's already walking and crawling and doing things that once seemed hard for her.”
It also made a difference for Chronister, who has other children but lived in a constant state of anxiety over Olivia’s condition before the transplant.
The slightest infection would send Olivia to the hospital, so Chronister found herself “just waiting for something to happen, just because that's how we lived for so long,” she said.
But she's trying to untrain that habit.
Progress wasn’t immediate, but she’s becoming a new mom as well.
“I feel like I can finally breathe,” Chronister said, “... but we're still trying to find our new normal.”
Because the anti-rejection medication suppresses Olivia’s immune system, they had a parade for her first birthday last month. She won’t start daycare until next fall, but her prognosis is excellent.
“She'll live a normal life, just like her sisters,” Chronister said. “She'll grow up and start school and start sports.”
With the transplant behind her, Olivia’s future — and her family’s — is much clearer, one that includes vacations and memories that don’t involve hospitals.
“I'm feeling comfortable enough now to where I realize that good things are coming,” Chronister said. “... It is exciting to know that those are things that we get to look forward to now with her.”
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