Organ transplant recipient thanks mom for ability to compete in athletics

KSL- Utah | John Daley


SANDY — Ashton Arndt, a student at Alta High School, likes to run, especially long distances and cross-country.

At a recent event, the 15-year-old sophomore demonstrated his skill, winning 19 medals in track and field, cycling and volleyball. The boy owes his ability to compete to his mother, though, who donated her liver to him when he was just an infant. Theirs was the first parent-to-child organ transplant in Utah.

When Ashton was 6-week-old in 1997, he was Jaundiced and not gaining weight, as his liver declined and surgery didn't help.

"We knew what that meant: That he would need a liver transplant before he was a year old or he would not survive," said his mother, JoLayna Arndt.

JoLayna was a donor match and donated part of her liver.

Now 15 years later, Ashton still has a major scar, and he takes medication daily, but he can do all he wants, including compete.

"I get so emotional, because I'm so grateful that he's here, so grateful that he's so healthy," JoLayna Arndt said.

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