Within a few hours, an Evening News reporter sat in the Gravels’ living room listening to Mrs. Gravel recount the story of Sarah’s six years of life, all of which had been affected by neonatal hepatitis and a cirrhotic liver.
The next day, Michelle and Ron Gravel agreed to allow an Evening News reporter and photographer document their daughter’s life on the liver transplant list, her surgery and recovery. The news team would record their conversations and actions with words and photographs so that the journey could later be reconstructed in a manner that would allow readers to feel as if they had been there, too.
“On the waiting list,” the first article of what became a four-part series in Your Health, premiered July 5. It introduced Sarah and her family, her situation and recounted her time on the pediatric liver transplant waiting list.
Part two, “The night before” (July 12), documented the family’s tense night at University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital, Ann Arbor.
Part three, “A new liver, a new lease” (July 19), detailed Sarah’s surgery and recovery.
On July 26, the last part of Sarah’s story, “A new life at home,” told of her milestones and setbacks in her first two months with a new liver.
