'Our only shot' - Mandurah father calls for support as 36-day-old son has liver transplant

Logan Kearns was born prematurely in February and was diagnosed with neonatal haemochromatosis - a rare condition causing liver failure.

His father Daniel Kearns, mother Melissa Hepple and 10-year-old sister Emily have been by his side at Sydney Children's Hospital for the last five months as young Logan fights for life.

While the liver transplant has extended Logan's life, he remains in a critical condition.

Mr Kearns said his son had endured issues with his kidneys, inflections, ammonia, sepsis, viruses and pneumonia - and remains on a ventilator.

"We are still dealing with the fallout from a large liver going into such a small baby," he said.

"Every facet of his life and his body function is a battle at the moment.

"Because of Logan's disease, he has extra arteries and veins grow in his body. It is not sending all the blood through his liver.

"What we need to do is get Logan stable and grow him so he is big enough for micro-surgery, where they would go in and essentially remap the veins and arteries in his body so the required blood goes through his liver and the ammonia is filtered out.

"We are three-to-six months away from that."

The Mandurah family are desperate for Logan to pull through and have been supported by their relatives, but being away from home for so long is taking its toll.

The couple have also been told that any further children they had would have an 87 per cent chance of the same complications.

"The biggest impact is the stress - we have no support network in Sydney and feel extremely isolated," Mr Kearns said.

"It is of utmost importance to get our son home.

"It's been our lifelong dream to have a son as well as a daughter and this is our only shot. What we've been through so far, we wouldn't wish on anybody."

With the long-term Mandurah family living away from home for five months, the bills are starting to rack up.

Mr Kearns, who praised his 'incredible' boss at Orange Autos in Mandurah, said he would have to leave Logan and his wife behind to return to work soon if a financial lifeline was not found.

"The bills at home aren't stopping - we put our mortgage on hold but we'll have to make payments again soon," he said.

"It's proving very stressful and taking our attention away from supporting Logan with everything we've got.

"We are extremely grateful for all the support we have received - we feel bad having to put our hand out. We are very private people and it's very hard to have to ask for help."

The Mandurah family have started a GoFundMe page - for more information or to donate, click here.