Riggs Grassinger of Citrus Heights was a happy and healthy infant and toddler. Then, at the age of 17 ½ months he went into acute liver failure without any discernible reason.

He was officially listed for a transplant on a Wednesday.  “He was status 1A when he was listed,” Riggs’ mom Sarah Grassinger said, “which meant that his life expectancy at that point was measured in hours to days.” A potential donor was located on Wednesday evening and the transplant took place on a Thursday morning in September 2012, at University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital. The procedure was a success, and Riggs is now an active five-year-old.

Riggs’s brother, 14-year-old Simon, said he was too young at the time to fully realize the significance of his little brother’s illness. “But at the same time I was also terrified,” Simon said.

The liver came from a teen girl who had died. Sarah said, “My heart just broke for some family out there that lost their child, yet in their worst moment decided to save mine.” She sent a letter to the grieving parents via a third party, but never received a response and never felt fully at peace with their sacrifice.

That wasn’t the end of the story.  Sarah was in a wedding and another woman in the wedding was listed for a kidney transplant. “She’s a mom and she has 2 kids and so I just knew I wanted to do it,” Sarah said. “I think the reality of it is I couldn’t be in the presence of somebody that needed in the way that we needed, and not do something about it.”

Riggs’s dad, Mark Grassinger, fully supported his wife’s decision to donate a kidney, which Sarah did in November of 2015.  “It’s like for us everything has come full circle,” Sarah said.  “I feel like this says thank you as well as I can say it.”

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital began pediatric kidney transplants in 1964 and pediatric liver transplants in 1989, making it one of the oldest children’s transplant services in the country, according to Suzanne Leigh, Senior Public Information Representative at UCSF.