Though it's impossible to predict precisely, her doctor says she will probably die in the next several months unless she can get a transplant from a living donor.
Her mom Tina Carter has been sleeping in a chair by her daughter's bed since they arrived Friday.
"She's just my heart. I just love her so much and she is so happy and she smiles, she just wants to talk. She is just a little sunshine ball," she said.
Nikki has been coming to UCSF off and on since May and she's back because her condition suddenly worsened.
"They were hoping we had time to get a pediatric liver, but it's not that case anymore. We are running out of time and I need an 'O' positive liver and what they will do is they will take half the left lobe," Carter said.
Tina is the wrong blood type, but she's going to be tested as a possible donor anyway. There is a Michigan man, a complete stranger, who has volunteered to be tested after reading about their dire situation on Facebook.
"I have a 2-year-old son, I would like to hope if something like this ever happens to him, which I pray it doesn't, somebody would be able to help him, if that was the case," potential donor Mike Sparks said.
Nikki's twin sister and two older siblings are home in Sacramento with their dad. Tina's friend Kelley Bernard is her support at the hospital and she cannot be the donor because her blood type is not a match.
"It's just hard to see her, because she is never, you wouldn't even know she was sick. She never cries, she is just the sweetest little thing and I am sure the nurses love her because she gives no trouble. She's amazing," she said.
The California Transplant Donor Network said there are 17 other children at UCSF also waiting for livers and there are a total of three, including Nikki who are under the age of one.
For more information, visit Donate Life California or send an e-mail to info@ctdn.org
With regard to being a living donor to Nikki, contact Anna Marie at UCSF at (415) 353-1377. For UCSF's liver transplant line, call 1-800-548-3789.
