Maya Banks Liver Transplant Recipient
 Hello.
My name is Maya Banks. I am 6 years old and I am a liver
transplant recipient.
I was born healthy and happy and attended
daycare and had a normal little-girl life until I was
4 years old. When it was time for me to go to school,
my mother took me to the doctor to get my school physical,
and it was then that the doctor found that my liver
was not working right. After learning this, my life
changed forever. At the age of four, my body began closing
down on me because of my damaged liver. On October 18,
2003, I had to undergo an emergency liver transplant.
God blessed me with a great team of doctors who had
started a Pediatric Organ Transplant Program at Georgetown
University Hospital in Washington, DC.
I am so thankful to the family that
gave me this great gift of life, and I'm happy for all
of the new medical research on organ donation and transplantation.
I know first hand that without the courage of the donor
family to make the difficult decision to donate a loved
one's organs and without the expert medical and surgical
staff at the hospital, I may not have survived and would
not be alive today. Now I am back in school and as active
as all of my friends. Every day there is a moment when
I think about the donor who made my life possible.
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