MIAMI – At 10 months old, Makinley Edwards is a sight for sore eyes.
It wasn't that long ago that she was dying. She had lost her liver to cancer.
"At 2 months, at her exam, the doctor felt something and said, 'Go have an ultrasound,'" mother Nicole Edwards said.
For the next six months, the Edwards watched their daughter endure surgeries and suffering. That was until a liver came along from a 4-year-old who died.
"We had a liver from a 4-year-old child, but it was still too big for her so we had to reduce its size for her," Holtz Children's Hospital transplant surgeon Dr. Akin Tekin said.
It was a bittersweet moment for the Edwards.
"You are extremely happy because your child is going to be saved, but you are extremely sad because another child lost their life," Nicole Edwards said.
Doctors said an organ donation was the only option to save her life.
"It's a rare disease, but transplant can actually save a lot of patients with this type of cancer," Dr. Rodrigo Vianna said.