Dylan's Kidney Journey

Dylan is 13 years old and was born with chronic kidney failure, among other related diagnosis. He had a rough start with 11 trips to the operating room in his first two years of life but has lived a pretty typical kid life since the last major surgery at age 2.5. He has been monitored by pediatric nephrology and urology at Penn State Children's Hospital since his start in their NICU. He has had regular labs and taken daily medications his entire life. His kidney function has declined over time and he is now at 15% function. He passed all of the testing for pre-transplant and is officially on the waiting list, however, he is not active. We are working on getting a living donor with hopes of the most successful match possible. Dylan‘s mom was scheduled to give him a kidney this past July but Penn State Medical Center closed their kidney transplant program a few weeks before transplant was scheduled. We had to start all over again from scratch with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia . It has been a long and frustrating process. Dylan's insurance will cover most medical expenses for him and his donor but there are many additional expenses during the process. (hotels, transportation, loss of income) All money raised will be used directly for transplant related expenses. Any remaining funds will be placed in an account to cover medical expenses in the future. We are fortunate that a kidney transplant will save Dylan's life but a transplanted kidney will not last forever. The average transplanted kidney lasts 15 years. This fund will allow us to be with him during the process and have something saved for future expenses.