Three-year-old Judah Brooks receives life-saving organ donation

BEAVER, WV (WVNS)– A young boy in Raleigh County recently celebrated his third year of life thanks to a life-saving organ donation. Judah was born with the rare pediatric liver disease known as Biliary Atresia, which affects the bile ducts in the liver and the biliary system. After the transplant, however, he was able to start living his life to the fullest. The Brooks family is now sharing Judah’s story in hopes more people can learn about organ donation and potentially save the lives of others.

Judah’s struggle with the disease began shortly after he was born.

“Around a week old we realized that something was wrong,” shared Judah’s mother, Katie Brooks. “We didn’t know exactly what it was. It was extremely scary. It was very scary to hear that your infant child is going to need an organ transplant to live.”

By six months old, Judah was in end-stage liver failure and was promptly placed on the organ transplant list. During that time, he started facing all of the different complications that come with liver failure.

“He was extremely yellow, he had a distended abdomen, and he was just very, very sick. We had to feed him via an NG (Nasogastric) tube because he wasn’t absorbing nutrients or growing anymore and so at that point we knew he was going to need a liver transplant pretty rapidly,” said Brooks.

Judah had a transplant surgery around five weeks after being put on the transplant list, and Brooks said that Judah’s transformation seemed to happen overnight.

“His nurses used to call him their highlighter baby, because he looked like he had been colored with a highlighter. We watched his eyes go from yellow to white in 48 hours, which was the craziest thing, and within 48 hours his bilirubin was within normal range for the first time in his life,” said Brooks.

Judah received a pretty big following on social media after his mother posted about his story on Facebook and TikTok. Brooks said countless people reached out to her, sharing how his transformation resonated with them.

“I think they see Judah running and playing and being a normal, healthy 3-year-old and that really opens their eyes,” said Brooks. “They would say, ‘I have never registered as an organ donor, I never thought to register as an organ donor, or I never really even knew what organ donation really was, but seeing the transformation in your little boy, I’m going to register as an organ donor.'”

Brooks also explained that while Judah is doing great now, there are still many many kids and adults out there who are facing the same things and are waiting on an organ right now.

“If people would register and sign up and save those lives just by me sharing Judah’s story- then it’s all worth it,” said Brooks.

One of the ways you can register or simply learn more about organ donation is by going to the Center for Organ Recovery & Education website . Currently, only 36% of West Virginians are registered to donate. Other easy ways to register as a donor is by signing up when getting a hunting and fishing license or when getting a driver’s license.

“Before Judah had his transplant when he was at his sickest, we had never heard Judah laugh out loud. He really couldn’t crawl, he couldn’t sit up, he really didn’t play much- I could only imagine how bad he felt. After he had that transplant, within six days he was laughing out loud, and now he doesn’t stop laughing. He is the funniest kid you have ever been around. I love just watching him play with his sister. It just fills my heart with so much joy.”

Katie Brooks

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.