{"id":325748,"date":"2026-07-01T09:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325748\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T09:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:26:10","slug":"florida-launches-pilot-program-to-screen-newborns-for-rare-liver-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325748\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida launches pilot program to screen newborns for rare liver disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 An update on a story News 6 has been following since 2025. Starting today, some newborns in Florida will be screened for a rare liver disease.<\/p>\n

As News 6 has reported<\/a>, Mattie Beacham from Orlando was born with the rare liver disease, biliary atresia, that went undiagnosed for months.<\/p>\n

Her parents say, as a result, she\u2019s had to have multiple surgeries and even lost her hand.<\/p>\n

Since then, her parents have been working to change laws to require universal screenings<\/a> for the disease at birth.<\/p>\n

While \u201cMattie\u2019s Law\u201d stalled in the state legislature this spring, a $600,000 pilot program was approved. \u201cMattie\u2019s Biliary Atresia Newborn Screening Pilot Program\u201d will begin with newborns at AdventHealth for Children.<\/p>\n

Mattie\u2019s parents say had their daughter\u2019s disease been caught earlier it would have prevented a lifetime of complications…<\/p>\n

\u201cThis thing should have been flagged, and had it been flagged we wouldn\u2019t be speaking with you today,\u201d said Allison Walker Beacham, Mattie\u2019s mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a time bomb disease,\u201d said Michael Beacham, Mattie\u2019s dad. \u201cIf you catch it at birth and you fix it before 30 days, there\u2019s a 68% chance they won\u2019t need a liver transplant, and if they do, it\u2019ll be when they\u2019re 10 or 11 or 12 (years old).\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattie\u2019s parents are hopeful other hospital systems will soon join the program. <\/p>\n

Meantime, they continue to advocate for statewide and nationwide screening programs for rare-liver disease.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 An update on a story News 6 has been following since 2025. Starting today, some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[134726,80663,121865,139,141,140,134727],"class_list":["post-325748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-matties-biliary-atresia-newborn-screening-pilot-program","tag-adventhealth-for-children","tag-matties-law","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-rare-liver-disease"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}