Angelia’s Journey to a New Kidney

Angelia was born 10/11/2010 a beautiful baby girl. She was tiny and continued to stay small for her age.

         1 week old            1 year old         2 years old 3 years old    4 years old  5 years old

It wasn’t until she was 5 years old that Rachel and Josh (her parents) realized that something was seriously wrong. Angelia’s growth was stunted and she began to have a “pot belly” appearance. After testing, it was discovered that Angelia was spilling protein in her urine and her kidneys were not functioning as they should. Angelia was taken to Barnes-Jewish Children’s Hospital with her mom, while Josh packed up her younger siblings and traveled behind them. At 6 years old, Angelia was receiving 6-8 hour long Albumen(protein) infusions two times a week for 2 months. The infusions were not working so back to the Children’s Hospital for a kidney biopsy. That is when they discovered Angelia’s nephrotic syndrome was due to a genetic kidney disorder.

6 years old      6.5 yrs old   7 yrs old     8 yrs old     9 yrs old

In April 2019, Angelia went back to Children’s Hospital was started on dialysis. During the week in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit), Angelia was intubated and given oxygen while liquid was drained from her lungs. She was moved to the Pediatric floor and then she had severe abdominal pain that caused her to go into cardiac arrest for over 7 minutes she was given CPR. Praise God, her brain function was normal and again she was on the road to recovery. In May of last year (2019) Angelia started her first dialysis at home. On September 14, 2020 they got a call that they had a kidney for Angelia if they could get her to Children’s Hospital by 2:00am. At 7:30am the surgery began and by 10:30am Angelia had a new kidney.

Angelia is such an inspiration… such a strong young lady… such a loving child. Please keep her and her family, and her medical team in your thoughts and prayers. We will be updating this site and creating a social media page to keep everyone as up-to-date on Angelia’s progress as possible. This life saving kidney comes with multiple bills and life long medication and doctor visits.  Please consider contributing to COTA in honor of Angelia. Thank you.

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

                                                 Angelia excited to get her new kidney!