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Five-year-old Sullivan LeaMond has a great sense of humor. Recently, while grocery shopping with his family, Sullivan noticed the bagboy scratching an itch. He told the bagboy, “Get a new liver!”

Sullivan, who received a liver transplant at MUSC, will represent South Carolina during the national Children’s Miracle Network Weekend of Champions to be broadcast from Walt Disney World on June 5 and 6. The broadcast can be seen locally on WCSC-TV Channel 5.

Sullivan and 50 other “champions” from across the United States (one from each state and the District of Columbia) will help spread the message of the Children’s Miracle Network, a year-round effort to help hospitalized children.

When he was nine months old, doctors discovered that Sullivan’s liver was failing as a result of a condition called cholestatic cirrhosis. Toxic substances that the healthy liver cleans out of the blood were building up, causing terrible itching. During the next year, his condition continued to deteriorate. His only hope for improvement was a liver transplant.

On Dec. 16, 1996, at the age of 2, Sullivan received a new liver during 12 hours of surgery at MUSC Children’s Hospital. But five hours after the transplant, Sullivan’s new liver appeared to fail, and he was given only 24 to 48 hours to live.

By a miracle just five hours later, another liver became available, and, after another 13 hours in the operating room, Sullivan’s second liver transplant was a success.

Sullivan and the other champion children represent 14 million children of all ages, economic levels and ethnic backgrounds who are treated at CMN-participating hospitals each year.

Before traveling to Orlando, the champions visited the White House on June 3 to share the message of the Children’s Miracle Network.

Children's Miracle Network broadcast to air June 5, 6

On June 5 and 6, the Children's Miracle Network (CMN) will air its annual broadcast to raise funds to help hospitalized children.

Beginning at 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 5, the local broadcast will air on WCSC-TV Channel 5. Broadcast from MUSC Harper Student Center at 45 Courtenay Drive, the event will continue until 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 6. Visitors are welcome.

All funds generated through the local broadcast stay with MUSC Children's Hospital. During the past 14 years, the broadcast has raised more than $5 million to help seriously ill children.

This year's event will emphasize MUSC's special champions—the kids who have beat the odds to become winners against illnesses such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell, heart and lung diseases, birth defects and severe trauma from accidents.

The broadcast will include on-air celebrities Warren Peper and Debi Chard, and the local stories of courageous young patients, their families and the physicians who treat them.

Also included will be national segments broadcast live from Walt Disney World and featuring top stars in sport entertainment and national hosts Marie Osmond, John Schneider and CMN international chairman Drew Bledsoe of the NFL's New England Patriots.

The number to call to make a pledge during the broadcast on June 5 and 6 is 792-8000.