"There's many times where I didn't think he would make it or pull through," 27-year-old mom Beatriz Jauregui tells PEOPLE
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/8-month-Old-Baby-Who-Spent-His-Life-in-Hospital-Gets-a-Liver-Transplant-042426-0942cb2bef96455c94c82c8efc96b371.jpg "8-month-Old Baby Who Spent His Life in Hospital Gets a Liver Transplant.")
Credit: Courtesy of Beatriz Jauregui
NEED TO KNOW
- Beatriz Jauregui’s son Baylor was born on Aug. 8, then got diagnosed three days later with a rare liver disease
- He was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital in late August and by October, he had a new liver
- “I am so thankful for every second of life,” his mom tells PEOPLE
A baby who spent his first eight months of life inside a Texas hospital has finally returned home after receiving a new liver.
"I'm sure people think that they can handle it, but until you're in this situation, it is completely different," 27-year-old mom Beatriz Jauregui tells PEOPLE. "I've learned so much through this journey and I am so thankful for every second of life."
Just three days after Baylor was born on Aug. 8, 2025, he was diagnosed with a rare condition called gestational alloimmune liver disease (GALD), which occurs when certain maternal antibodies cross the placenta, "attacking the fetal liver, resulting in acute liver failure," according to the American Journal of the Medical Sciences.
"I just broke down," Jauregui, of Muldrow, Okla., recalls. "My sister was there with me and she just held me and we just cried."
Credit: Courtesy of Texas Children’s Hospital
The two weeks between Baylor's diagnosis and his transfer to Texas Children's Hospital on Aug. 25 were tense, filled with transfusions and intubation. During that time, Baylor also suffered a double pulmonary embolism.
"My thoughts the first two weeks were more on the dark side," Jauregui remembers. "Googling his diagnosis and realizing it was my body that did this, thinking I had hurt my baby was something that I had to work months to overcome."
After attempts to improve his liver function proved unsuccessful, Baylor was placed on the transplant list on Sept. 9.
"We received five different offers," Jauregui recalls. "The first one was on Sept. 11, but unfortunately, Baylor was not medically stable at that point, so we had to pass."
Jauregui, who worked in manufacturing before taking time off to care for her son, says she did her best to stay cautiously optimistic, but every liver they had to pass on because it just wasn't a perfect match really took a toll on her.
Fortunately, less than a month after being placed on the transplant list, they found the match they'd been waiting for.
Credit: Courtesy of Beatriz Jauregui
Following the nine-hour surgery on Oct. 1, Baylor spent the next several months in the ICU intubated and on a ventilator, which allowed doctors to monitor how he was doing.
During the time she spent with Baylor at the hospital, Jauregui decorated the glass doors of his ICU room by posting photos documenting the milestones of his life and writing thank-you messages for the hospital's doctors, nurses and staff.
Credit: Courtesy of Texas Children’s Hospital
"I wanted to surprise everyone that had been this whole entire journey with Baylor and just to see where he's come from or how the process had happened," Jauregui says. "They meant a lot to me. I grew close with the whole entire team and I just wanted to let them see how far he's coming that he's going to go grow big and grow old and do great things, hopefully. "
Credit: Courtesy of Texas Children’s Hospital
Being there to watch Baylor improve meant a lot to hospital staff, too.
"It was incredible to see his progression from when he arrived from Oklahoma to when he was getting ready to go home," Dr. John Goss, Texas Children's Hospital medical director of transplant services, told CBS affiliate KHOU.
After nearly a year spent inside hospital walls, Baylor was finally discharged on April 16.
Now back home in Oklahoma, Jauregui says her baby is doing well.
"Right now, he just needs his medications, morning and night medications," she says. "And he has an NG [nasogastric] tube, so I have to watch his feeds and make sure they don't run out."
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Jauregui, who leaned on her family and friends to help her get through Baylor's hospitalization, admits there were "many times where I didn't think he would make it or pull through."
Now that they've finally made it to the other side, she's determined they're "going to live our best life and do all the good things."
Jauregui's family created a GoFundMe to help support Baylor's recovery.