COTA for Kiran

Our Story

Kiran was born just after Thanksgiving 2019 to Kalyan and Mary at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Indianapolis, IN.  At his 20 week anatomy scan, the doctors found something “funny” about his bladder and a mass in his lung (known as a CPAM), so the NICU team was present at his birth  in case of complications. There certainly were complications, and things got very scary very quickly. Defying the odds, and thanks to an incredible NICU team, Kiran survived. He spent 101 days in the NICU at St. Vincent’s and had surgery at five days old to place his first dialysis catheter. He was the first baby to go home on dialysis from the St. Vincent’s NICU.

Kiran’s official diagnosis is posterior urethral valves. In utero, a tiny piece of tissue blocked urine from coming out, which caused reflux into his kidneys which damaged them before he was born. He is connected to his peritoneal dialysis machine for a little over 12 hours every night, and takes a variety of shots, medications, and special renal feeds while getting monthly blood draws to check his kidney levels. Despite this, looking at him you’d likely never know anything was wrong. He’s a thriving toddler – very quick and pretty happy.

Kiran’s family is working with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to begin Kiran’s workup and evaluation for a life saving kidney transplant and search for a living kidney donor.  Before transplant, Kiran will also have to undergo surgery to remove the portion of his lung containing the CPAM. The next year and years to come will require a lot of travel to Cincinnati, among other costs not covered by insurance, and Kiran will likely need a second and third transplant later in life. 

Thank you for learning more about Kiran and donating your time, money, or talents to help COTA in honor of Kiran. We will be posting updates about fun events here to help raise funds and updates on Kiran’s progress and we work towards a transplant. 

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.