COTA for Harper's Kidney

Our Story

This is Harper. A wild, spunky, confident and outspoken child who would put a smile on anyone’s face who had the pleasure of meeting her.

She loves everything pink, is the best big sister to her brother Hudson and is her Dad’s biggest fan on the football field.

Harper was getting ready to start preschool and was just four years old in the summer of 2018 when she contracted E-Coli which turned into Shiga Toxin Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. HUS is a rare but serious disease that affects the kidneys and blood clotting functions of infected people. Infection with HUS causes destruction of red blood cells, which can then cause kidney failure – and that’s exactly what happened, accompanied with many other unfortunate complications.

She was admitted for 14 weeks total where she spent 11 of those in PICU before being transferred to the regular floor. She had become septic and spent an entire month on a ventilator and hooked up to CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy). She made many trips to the operating room and had multiple IV’s and lines placed. She had multi organ system failure including end stage renal disease. She sustained a neurologic injury and faces developmental delays as well as has a cortical visual impairment. She relies on her g-tube for all of her medications and nutrition. She is insulin dependent and also had an ileostomy placed as a result of a bowel perforation and eventual removal of her entire large intestine. Harper was born a completely healthy child with no health concerns until this. Every inch of her body was greatly affected.

During this time, Harper’s body had sustained such traumatic injuries that she was turned away from a rehab facility. After being discharged, she required dialysis 3 times a week which required lots of travel as her clinic was 2 hours away. She was going to have to relearn everything all over again and that was IF she would ever regain any of those functions back, as we were told by many of her doctors, was not going to be likely. Regardless of the struggles that laid ahead, her Dad and I had faith in her recovery no matter what the prognosis was. We took her home, loved and cared for her the best we could and prayed constantly for any improvements.

Today, she is continuing to defy the odds by even doing the simple things such as walking and talking. We began the transplant process in April 2019 and as I was approved at one facility to be her donor, her case was found to be a little too complicated for the surgeons there. We were referred to another facility where she was finally approved then I was denied. We were discouraged and heartbroken but in less than 2 months, my sister was matched, completed all of the testing and ready to be Harper’s donor. On March 6, 2020, she again proved to the world that anything is possible as she received her life saving kidney transplant. She was gifted another chance at life from her Aunt Lisa. As we continue to pray for further recovery she continues to progress.

Looking forward, due to Harper’s age and the nature of this disease, she likely faces the reality of another transplant in the future which is why we are so lucky to have found an organization like COTA. We have partnered with COTA for assistance with transplant-related expenses. Please consider donating to COTA in honor of Harper.

I want to THANK YOU for taking a moment to check out our COTA website. We hope you know how grateful we are for all of the love and prayers and we appreciate every financial gift to COTA for Harper’s Kidney and words of encouragement that has kept us going through the most difficult times of our lives.

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.