Cincinnati Children's Liver & Intestinal Transplant

08/06/2025

In the Spotlight: As the back-to-school season approaches, it’s not just about new backpacks and pencils — it’s also about protecting your child’s health. Dr. Felicia Scaggs Huang, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, is urging families to ensure children are up to date on required vaccinations, especially in light of the recent rise in measles cases nationwide. Read more from WLWT in the comments.

08/05/2025

At just 11 years old, Jaxen was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. His condition progressed quickly, and he needed a double lung transplant to survive. With the help of Cincinnati Children’s and the support of his mom, Jaxen received a double lung transplant—and a chance to live fully again. Today, he’s back to doing what he loves most. His story is one of courage, care, and hope.

08/04/2025

Our Employee Volunteer Ambassadors made a big impact in Walnut Hills during the annual Cincinnati Reds Community Makeover Day! They worked alongside Shoes 4 the Shoeless to unload supplies and outfit 150 kids with new shoes and socks just in time for school! Other volunteers painted colorful murals and planted trees and shrubs for a learning garden.

08/04/2025

🌟 Meet Ben, Our Inspiration! 🌟

Ben has been a superstar at Cincinnati Children’s since day one! Born with a rare neuromuscular condition affecting his legs, Ben faces every challenge—surgeries, therapies, and countless doctor visits—with unmatched courage and a big, bright smile.

Ben’s determination is the heart and soul of “Benny and the Jets,” one of our spirited Cincinnati Walks for Kids teams. Every year, they come together to raise funds and hope for our Neurology programs.

We’re thrilled to let you know registration for Cincinnati Walks for Kids, presented by Messer Construction Co., is officially OPEN! Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 28 and join us at Great American Ball Park for a morning of fun, community and making a difference for kids like Ben.

Ready to walk, cheer, or donate? Check out the link in the comments to register—this week only, enjoy $5 off each registration (which means kids 12 and under walk FREE!). Let’s rally together and show our support for every child who needs our expert care.

👟💙 Sign up, lace up, and let’s make every step count!



Cincinnati Children's Giving

08/01/2025

Our Cincinnati Children's Clinical Research Studies is conducting a research study for healthy children 3 to 33 months old. Healthy children play an important role in research by helping us understand how they grow and develop—knowledge that can lead to better care, illness prevention, and healthier futures. Families may receive up to $640 for participating. See if your child qualifies through the link in the comments.

08/01/2025

For this week's , we are kicking off ! Feeding your baby can be stressful, but our Center for Breastfeeding Medicine is here to care for breastfeeding parents and babies. Lactation professionals work with the medical team to design an individualized feeding plan for each baby, incorporating the wishes and abilities of the family. The team also offers support services for assistance with low milk supply concerns, pump use, returning to work or school, and more. Get more info in the comments!

07/31/2025

Sweet ride! Dadquest Adventures organized a car show for our patients and families. The organization’s events fuel hope, raise funds, and provide essential support to ensure every child has access to the care, opportunities, and experiences they deserve. 🏎

07/31/2025

🍦🔥 Hot Mic! It's one of our favorite days of the year! Miracle Treat Day is here! For every Blizzard sold at participating Dairy Queen locations, $1 or more is donated to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals like us to help fund life-saving treatments. What are you waiting for?? What Blizzard will be you getting? Get more info in the comments!

07/31/2025

There was a small fire this evening in an area under construction in the B building on the Burnet Campus. No one was injured and we anticipate little to no disruption to operations.

Thank you to our staff and our local first responders for their quick action and response!

07/30/2025

Our Centerville Location, including all walk in services, will close temporarily at the end of the day on Friday, Aug. 8, due to a construction issue that we need to address. The location will likely remain closed for several months for construction.

We will move appointments to other Cincinnati Children’s locations, making every effort to keep the same date, time and provider. We may switch some visits to telehealth. We will call you to discuss options for your scheduled appointment; please be patient with us as we contact patients and families in the order they are already scheduled.

Centerville Primary Care will temporarily relocate to share space with Liberty Primary Care.

Thank you for your patience during this temporary closure. We will share more about Centerville reopening as that information becomes available.

07/30/2025

: The sky was showing off again after all the recent storms. Do you have unique photos and uplifting snapshots from any of our locations? Share them with us for a chance to be featured, by emailing socialmedia@cchmc.org.

Burnet Campus photo credit: Tyler Kerns
Liberty Campus photo credit: Marcy Piatt

07/30/2025

It was wonderful to spend time with so many of our patients, their families, and friends at the 34th Annual Transplant Picnic last Saturday at Kings Island!!

Pictured here at our event is transplant recipient (and birthday girl) Liviah with her parents and younger sister!

We would love to add your picnic photos to our Facebook picnic album to share with our friends and followers! Please send any photos you'd like to share to Elisabeth.Ratermann@cchmc.org

See you next year!!

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07/30/2025

♥️ What amazing generosity!

07/25/2025

A few weeks ago, several of our faculty and staff had the honor and privilege of attending and presenting at the Inaugural Cholestatic Liver Disease Summit in Colorado.

This wonderful event brought together many of the foremost physicians and researchers in the field of cholestatic liver disease, as well as industry partners and most importantly, many affected families who drive and inspire us as they advocate for improved treatments and cures for these pediatric liver diseases.

Cincinnati Children's presenters, facilitators, and panelists for this year's event included:
Stacey Huppert, PhD
Alex Miethke, MD
Aki Asai, MD, PhD
Chunyue Yin, PhD
Anna Borgemenke, PharmD
Emily Vincent, BSN and,
Kari Huppert, BS.

07/18/2025

Last chance!! If you have not purchased your family tickets and claimed your free transplant recipient/liver donor ticket(s) for our Transplant Picnic on 7/26 at Kings Island - today is your last chance!

Our friends at Kings Island have graciously reopened our online store until midnight tonight (Friday 7/18) to allow for some late ticket purchases 😀

Unfortunately, after today, our final catering numbers will be due and we will not be able to reopen the store.

Please use your codes and information sent to you by mail and let us know if you have any questions!

07/08/2025

Our sweet patient Kobe, featured on Cincinnati Children's !! 💚💙

07/01/2025

At Cincinnati Children's Liver & Intestinal Transplant we are so grateful to be the recipients of a fantastic research grant provided by the generous donations of the Markham family. This year's recipient of the Markham Family Award on Liver Diseases/Liver Transplantation was Jonathan Merola, MD, PhD. Dr. Merola is one of our esteemed liver and intestinal transplant surgeons, as well as a PhD scientist.

With this year's Markham Award, Dr. Merola used blood samples provided by children affected by the same alpha-1 genetic mutation yet experiencing differing severity in disease manifestation. The most severe complication of the alpha-1 mutation results in portal hypertension in the liver, a condition which currently has no treatment in children and often requires liver transplantation for survival.

From these blood samples, stem cells were harvested, differentiated to liver cells, and using gene editing techniques Dr. Merola was able to correct the mutation and compare those from the children experiencing portal hypertension and severe disease to those who do not have severe disease.

Through this study, we believe we have uncovered new mechanisms for how portal hypertension develops in the setting of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, which will lead to new therapeutic targets and hope for a treatment that prevents or significantly delays the need for liver transplantation for this condition.

06/26/2025

🌟🌟Current patient families! 🌟🌟 Don't forget to order your Kings Island event tickets for our Annual Transplant Picnic! Our annual picnic is exactly one month from today: Saturday, July 26th at 12 noon! Ticket order deadline is 7/14.

Refer to your mailed invitation for your unique ticket code for free tickets for transplant recipients and discounted tickets for family!

Questions? Give us a call! 513-636-4955

We can't wait to see you there!

06/25/2025

Our little friend Penelope recently made the local Cincinnati news with an inspiring update on how she is doing post liver-transplant - back home and thriving. We are so grateful for our wonderful collaboration with the Gastroenterology team at Akron Children's, who work with us to make stories like Penelope's possible.

Doctors are calling it a medical miracle.

06/24/2025

Sharing a beautiful reel of transplant memories created by patient Izzy's mom! Izzy celebrated her 7-year liverversary on 6/21 💚💙 Join us in wishing her a Happy Liverversary and a big Congratulations!!

Send a message to learn more

06/20/2025

A late post but worth the share! Team Ohio 4 Life visited us in April and dropped off a large donation of children's books, coloring books, activity books, markers, and crayons for transplant patients at Cincinnati Children's.

This generosity puts smiles on the face of children, and helps us provide a better experience and some wonderful distractions and boredom busters for our patients experiencing hospitalization or long clinic days.

Thank you again, Team Ohio 4 Life!!

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06/18/2025

Join us in wishing the happiest belated birthday to our little friend and transplant recipient Poppy! She turned 2 last week! 🎂🩷

Do you have a milestone or accomplishment to celebrate? Send us an email at Elisabeth.Ratermann@cchmc.org!
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06/16/2025

An exciting development from Cincinnati Children's research labs - multi-zone liver organoids developed via human stems cells showed significant survival benefit in experimental rodent models with liver damage.

This research brings us an important step closer to both drug development to delay and prevent further liver damage, as well as the eventual goal to be able to "grow" and regenerate a patient's own liver tissue and prevent the need for liver transplantation.

This research represents a collaborative effort between many Cincinnati Children's physician-scientists including Dr. Takanori Takebe, Dr. Jon Merola, Dr. Alex Bondoc, and the Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM).

One reason why our livers excel at clearing waste from our blood system is that the organ functions according to three key “zones” that perform specific major tasks. So, if scientists hope to create self-growing patches of liver organoid tissue that could help repair damaged organs, it’s impor...

06/13/2025

Last Saturday we had the privilege to walk, fundraise, and celebrate as sponsors of the American Liver Foundation's Liver Life Walk Cincinnati.

Celia Paige, MSW, Liver Transplant Social Worker was honored as a Liver Health Hero and spoke at the event alongside UC Health's Dr. Quillen.

Cincinnati Children's liver recipient Corbin Maupin was honored as the 2025 Pediatric LIVEr Champion, and his family gave a heartwarming and emotional speech about Corbin's journey with biliary atresia - with a great dose of humor mixed in!

We were honored to receive awards for Top Fundraising Medical Team, Top Recruiting Medical Team, and Top Stepping Team!

Even Rosie Red made an appearance, and stopped to cuddle with our Liver Life Walk unofficial team dog, Avro. 🐾

For this year's walk, nearly $29,000 was raised to support the ALF mission of research and advocacy work to drive us toward a world free of liver disease. 💚💙