A young Vernon resident desperately needs a new kidney, and his parents are searching for a donor.
Dylan is a happy 18-month-old boy. He loves the family cat, Junior, and giggles while chasing it, he smiles while walking to his mom and dad, and enjoys playing with his older brother, Mason.
Dylan was also born with only one kidney and is now in kidney failure.
“His diagnosis was posterior urethral valves, which they found in my 20-week ultrasound,” said Megan Nekrash, his mom. “So once he was born ... they removed them once he was stable enough to have surgery, but it blocked the urine going out of his bladder which damaged his kidney.”
He has been on dialysis since he was approximately six months old.
His parents, Megan and Brian Nekrash are searching for a living kidney donor for Dylan. They are hopeful that by the time a match is found and ready to donate, Dylan will be able to receive the kidney.
“We just started [looking] because he’s not big enough yet,” explained Megan.
“He has to be 12 kilos, but we were told that we should start looking now – it takes a few months for the workup to be done – so the hope is that all the workup will be done by the time he reaches that weight so that when everything is ready we can get the transplant.”
Brian is the right blood type, but more than that goes into being a kidney donor match. The size of the kidney and blood vessels, and the tissue type all go into determining if a kidney will work. Brian is part way through the process, but they don’t know if he’ll be a match.
They’re looking for people willing to donate their kidney so Dylan has as high a chance as possible finding a donor.
“It’s quite a process and anybody that would consider it, we would be thankful for them, but it’s not for the faint of heart because it is an extensive process and ultimately ends in the donation of an organ,” said Brian.
Dylan is doing fine on dialysis right now, but that’s not a solution. While it hasn’t caused any problems yet, dialysis can cause other complications.
“But we’d be very grateful for anyone that would even consider making a donation, because even though I’m a matching blood type right now we don’t know that I’ll be able to make a donation to Dylan, but we hope so."
The family isn’t sure what the exact donation process will look like. Brian says that while navigating the medical system, they are not always told all of the information. The family is often “just going with the flow” and figuring things out as they go.
Dylan has spent his whole life in and out of hospitals – between Vernon Jubilee and BC Children's Hospital. They were flown to the Children's Hospital by air ambulance in the summer because Dylan was unstable.
“Most times you would never really know just by looking at him, that he’s sick. Often he’s got a big smile on his face, and he’s really happy,” said Brian. “He’s been a real source of inspiration – how he prevails through all the adversity that he’s had.”
Dylan will most likely need another kidney transplant when he's a teenager. For now, the family is searching for the first living donor for their cheerful little boy.
For more information on how to become a living kidney donor, visit transplant.bc.ca.
To donate to Dylan, you can contact St. Paul’s hospital directly by phoning 604.806.9027 or 1.877.922.9822, or by emailing [email protected]. Mention you would like to be a living kidney donor for Dylan.
