GRAHAM (KFDX/KJTL) — On September 6, 2023, we told you about the story of Everleigh Deck, an eight-month-old baby in dire need of a liver transplant.

After her story was shared all over Texas, Everleigh’s family found an unexpected donor, closer to home than the family could have originally expected.

We may need to send the University Health System in San Antonio an apology because they received a record number of liver donor applicants to give to Everleigh.

However, a cousin that Everleigh’s father never knew he had ended up being the answer to their prayers.

“Within two weeks, she had over a thousand people apply,” Everleigh’s mother, Taylor Deck, said. “This was a record for San Antonio. They had never had more than 300 for an individual apply. It was amazing.”

Of those 1,000 individuals, the Deck family only knew 50 but soon would know one more.

Long lost cousin Crissy Reid saw the story on Facebook and realized she was related to Tyson Deck, Everleigh’s father. Reid fit every qualification for Everleigh’s donation, and the doctors deemed them a match.

“Her liver is picture perfect forever,” Taylor said. “After surgery, they told us that they could not [have] custom ordered a better liver.”

On September 21, Everleigh and Crissy underwent 12 hours of intense and risky surgery. Today, the pair are doing better than ever.

“She was just a completely different baby,” Taylor said. “She is all smiles, giggles. She’s got so much energy that she didn’t have before.”

“Crissy is doing amazing. She, literally day two after surgery, walked from the ICU all the way to a whole other floor to Everleigh’s ICU and got to meet Everleigh for the first time.”

Tyson and Taylor said they feel beyond blessed that their prayers were answered but want to stress how many more babies like Everleigh there are out there

“We had over a thousand people that applied for relief,” the Decks said. “There a thousand people out there that were willing to donate to a child that they had no idea who she was, who her parents were. I just really want those people to know that there are more children out there that are just like Everleigh that need organs. And if they still feel led to donate, there’s still opportunity for them to do so.”

The Deck family wants to thank Texoma for all their prayers and support, and they said they appreciate every single person who applied to save their baby’s life.