MIRACLE BABY BATTLES ODDS, STUBBORN ILLS

SCOTT CITY --Signs welcomed her to town Tuesday, and blue and pink balloons lined the doorway of her home.

The 14-month-old, blonde, blue-eyed daughter of Mike and Chaundra Mason has a lot to celebrate. But the party is postponed until she's fully recuperated.

Since her birth last June, Summer Nicole Mason has survived two liver transplants within a 33-day period and countless other medical tests. Some residents have started calling her a "miracle baby."

Summer was diagnosed with a disease that only affects one in every 20,000 newborns, her parents explain.

The problems began shortly after she came home from the hospital. After doctors in Cape Girardeau diagnosed jaundice, the Masons were referred to Children's Hospital in St. Louis for more testing.

One year ago this month, Summer had exploratory surgery to discover what was causing her jaundice.

Doctors found that her liver wasn't producing bile, which aids in digestion. She had corrective surgery that connected her intestine to her liver. That should have delayed her need for a liver transplant.

But she soon developed more scar tissue and cirrhosis of the liver.

"That's what made her turn yellow," Chaundra said. "The jaundice made her itch."

Summer recovered from the first surgery, but she caught pneumonia in February. Her health deteriorated.

"She was getting worse and losing weight," Chaundra said.

On Dec. 5, doctors put her on the list for a liver transplant.

Summer received a new liver on April 13 at Children's Hospital in St. Louis.

"She flew through that," Chaundra said, adding that she was in and out of intensive care in only three days.

But that wasn't the end of her stay in the hospital. About a week later, doctors discovered a hole in Summer's intestine. And after repairing the hole, doctors found that her hepatic artery had clogged and destroyed the new liver's bile ducts.

Summer again was placed on the list for a new liver. The second liver came May 16. Fourteen hours later, the transplant was finished.

But a week later, doctors found that the hepatic artery had clogged again, Chaundra said.

"They told us that if it clotted in the second liver, it wouldn't unclot and they couldn't retransplant," she said. "There was nothing they could do medically to remove it. If she got an infection, it could overtake her."

But Summer recovered, astounding her doctors who found the clot open and flowing two weeks later.

For Chaundra Mason, the explanation is simple. "God did it. That's the good news."

Chaundra's faith would be tested again, though. While checking to see why Summer still had a fever about two weeks after her second transplant, doctors noticed another problem -- her brain had shrunk.

"They said she wouldn't walk or talk or move or think," Chaundra said.

Once again, Summer surprised the doctors.

"She does everything a baby does," said her mother. "She plays patty-cake and reaches for toys. She's definitely a fighter."

Although doctors don't know the exact cause of Summer's problems, the liver damage might be caused by a bile infection at birth.

"It affects girls more than boys," Chaundra said. "And it's not hereditary." Her son, Storm, 3, didn't have any serious health problems as a baby.

Right now, Summer and Storm are too young to completely understand what happened, but their parents plan to explain things later.

"He knew that his sister was sick, and we'd explain that she was at the hospital where the doctors could help her," Chaundra said.

During the six months or so Summer spent in the hospital, Chaundra kept a daily diary.

"I plan to give it to her," she said. "She's got the scars to show how bad she was and see how far she came."

Family members, friends and church members provided a lot of support for the Masons while Summer was hospitalized.

"I believed that God would take care of her either way and that's how I got through it," she said.

Once the doctors give the OK, Summer will celebrate her birthday and her homecoming with a party. It should be some part.