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5-Week-Old Baby Girl Needs Lung Transplant To Survive

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The parents of a five-week-old baby girl are in desperate need. If their little bundle of joy doesn't get a lung transplant, and soon, she will die.

As CBS2's Rachel Kim reported, the parents are asking everyone and anyone to help them in this time of need.

Katelyn Policastro came into the world five weeks ago and her parents couldn't stop beaming. They thought their little family unit was complete...and now they are literally fighting to keep their family together.

Says mom Leslie Policastro, "We need help.  Katelyn needs a lung. Just please help us."

Kim reports that the little girl was born with an extremely rare lung condition called alveolar capillary dysplasia and it is as awful as it sounds.

The disease, better known as ACD, is typically fatal. In ACD patients, Kim explains, the lung's air sacs remain too far from the blood supply which means enough oxygen does not get into the blood.

Katelyn's dad, Marc, is feeling inadequate to say the least. "This is probably one of the first times I have felt completely helpless," he says, "I can't help my daughter at all. And that feeling is empty."

Dr. Phillipe Friedlich, Katelyn's physician at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, is hopeful. "With a little bit of luck, we'll be able to find a suitable donor for Katelyn."

But he stresses, time is not on the little girl's side.

She is already in critical condition in the hospital's Niccu.

If there is one thing Marc Policastro already knows about his little girl it's that she isn't one to give up easily. "She's a fighter," he says, proudly.

To potential donors, he also has a poignant message from his family. "We thank you from the bottom of our broken hearts for your time and your consideration."

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