My 19 year old step-son Wyatt was in stage 4 kidney failure and on the brink of needing dialysis when my 20 year old son stepped up to begin the process of being a donor.  Despite age restrictions Nick fought to be able to donate to his step-brother.  His arguement...Wyatt is my brother and he needs a kidney and I can do that for him so why make it so difficult?

Nick has been an EMT for 2 years and currently works as an ER Tech at a local hospital.  Even with his crazy work schedule he managed to make time to make dozens of trips to USC  and Children's Hospital to get the required testing to verify his ability to donate.

Yesterday was the big day and Nick's surgery went very well.  They removed the kidney and he is now beginning the process of healing.  Wyatt received the kidney yesterday in a 5 hour surgery and as of this morning he is in alot of pain but his creatinine has gone from over 5 to 2.4.

As you can imagine both boys are in for a long recovery.  I am so very proud of my son Nick,  the true measure of a man is his willingness to do for others just because it is the right thing to do.

I am so proud of his decision to be a first responder and I know his mom would be too.  I believe one of the reasons he became an EMT with aspirations of being a firefighter and most recently a ICU nurse is because his mom had Cystic Fibrosis and passed away in 2011 and he watched nurses and doctors watch over her everyday while she was in the ICU for 4 months.  

Nick has had to take alot of time off work and also as a family we are going to have a large financial burden over the next year.  Wyatt's mom was let go from her job during this transplant process and our insurance was through her.  We have had to go through COBRA so that the transplant process was not interrupted.  So far we have had to absorb an additional $12K per year in insurance premium as well as a $11K oit of pocket co-pay and $740/month in additional co-pays.