Journal News | Rich McCrabb
Blake Henson won’t soon forget this year.
He turned 18 in February, graduated from Carlisle High School, and will be the youngest graduate when he receives his associate’s degree in business today from Sinclair Community College.
There’s one more thing: He’s donating a kidney to his older brother, Jeremy Henson, on June 27 at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.
“It’s been a little crazy,” Blake Henson said.
Doug and Patty Henson, of Carlisle, knew this day was coming after their oldest son, Jeremy, now 24, who was diagnosed with kidney reflex when he was 3. He had surgery to repair his ureters, which carry urine to the bladder, but after three years, the damage was done, his mother said.
Every year, Jeremy’s kidneys were measured, but they didn’t grow enough to support his body, she said.
Doctors said their son probably would require an organ transplant when he was 7 years old, then the target date was pushed back until he was 12, then when he entered puberty. Finally, after he received “bad blood results” earlier this year, his family knew the transplant was imminent.
Jeremy, a 2006 Carlisle High graduate, said his health was on “a slow decline.” It was either a transplant, or dialysis, he said.
He has three brothers, Kyle, 20, Blake, and Travis, 12. Kyle and Travis have A+ blood, the same as their father, and Jeremy and Blake have O+ blood, same as their mother.
No comments:
Post a Comment