COTA for Carly

Our Story

Carly suffers from chronic kidney disease due to kidney necrosis. She was born on January 7th, 2005 by emergency cesarean section due to a placental abruption. This caused Carly to hemorrhage and lose blood flow to her kidneys for several hours prior to her being born. At the time of delivery, she had lost most of her blood volume and luckily received a blood transfusion shortly after delivery. Her kidneys suffered greatly and at 3 days old was flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital with the possibility of needing dialysis. We spent 3 weeks in the NICU as her kidneys slowly rebounded.  

Carly thankfully did not end up needing dialysis and has been able to avoid it for almost 15 years. She has been on medications since day one and as she has grown has needed to add more. We were told she would eventually need a kidney transplant. We were hoping it would be further down the line, but the time has come as her kidneys are only functioning at 13% now. 

Carly is a miracle in so many ways from being an In Vitro Fertilization baby to surviving her birth, other than her kidneys failing she is an overall healthy typical teenager. She has been able to play volleyball for many years, and looks forward to playing in the future. We have been incredibly blessed the road has been this smooth by avoiding dialysis and hospitalizations. 

This will be a life changing event for all of us! As her mother I am a 100% match as her donor. We are praying and planning for the surgery to take place in the beginning of January 2020 sometime on or around her 15th birthday, if her kidneys allow. We will be at two different hospitals because she will need the specialist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital while I will be with specialist at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Funds are raised for COTA in honor of Carly and COTA’s partnership with our family will last for her lifetime. COTA will assist Carly with transplant-related expenses like future medical costs as she transitions to adulthood with high insurance premiums and a lifetime of medications.

Thank you all for your prayers, love and support for Carly and our family. We are all so very grateful! 

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.