42 • Off icial Kids Mag • MAY & JUNE 2018
Special to Official Kids Mag
Leigh Ann and Kenny Sandlin still vividly remember the sound of
the helicopter lifting off and landing on the helipad each night of that
week, six years ago, when they shared a room at Arkansas Children's
Hospital with their infant daughter, Kaylyn.
"After she'd finally fall asleep we would lay there listening to it take off and come
back, over and over," Leigh Ann recalled with wonder.
Kaylyn was just six weeks old when Leigh Ann took her to her pediatrician in
Bentonville to find out why she was spitting up so much.
"I thought maybe she had acid reflux," she said, "but as soon as we saw her
under the clinic's florescent lighting, it was very obvious that her skin tone was
yellow. His tone was urgent. He wanted to check Kaylyn into their local hospital
immediately. The baby's bilurubin and liver enzyme counts were off the chart. A
week later, no closer to a diagnosis, the family was referred to specialists.
Some of the most meaningful memories the Sandlins cherish from their
experience are the small acts of compassion that felt huge in such a difficult time,
like when Kaylyn, who was still breastfed, had to fast for upward of 8 hours.
"That was really hard on us," Leigh Ann remembered. "She was screaming
because she was so hungry, and was too little for us to explain why."
When the Sandlins learned Kaylyn's diagnosis, bilury artesia—an improperly
formed liver--Leigh Ann remembers an intern who thoughtfully tore off a piece
of paper and wrote it down for her, so she could begin to grasp what those
frightening and unfamiliar words meant.
Kaylyn's surgery was a success.
"Within a week we had gone from, 'we have no idea what's going on' to
'she's fixed and she's going home,' said Leigh Ann. "Which is amazing to me.
They're really good at what they do."
Family reflects
on daughter's
overcoming
medical
challenges
'She's fixed
and she's
going home'
Kaylyn
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