COTA for Team Everett

Our Story

This is Everett, 16, after we recently walked 124 km of the Camino de Santiago as a family. When you meet him you probably wouldn’t know that he has had stage 4 kidney disease for the past six years and has been a lifelong CKD kid. Even with his health challenges, he’s a normal teenager. He currently works as a lifeguard, and competes on his high school swim and tennis teams. He is a member of the Young Men’s Service League and active in our church youth group. He loves golfing and fishing with friends and traveling with his family.

He didn’t have the easiest start in life. At 32 weeks gestation, doctors noticed issues with his kidneys and bladder, which also affected his lungs and caused other complications. He spent his first two months in the NICU at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where his kidney function was stabilized, his bladder was repaired surgically, and he was on a respirator until his lungs could heal and grow strong enough to come home.

At home he spent a lot of time seeing specialists and receiving therapy, but he also grew stronger. Even as a baby he was cheerful and resilient. Over the years he’s been the best patient in every sense of the word. He never complains about doctor’s appointments, minor surgeries, invasive tests and scans, recurring bloodwork, or daily medications; he just gets on with it, being a normal kid and now an active teenager.

We’ve always known he would likely need a kidney transplant as a teenager because of the strain on his kidneys, so we’ve done everything we can to preserve his kidney function and give him a normal childhood. His nephrologist and urologist have cared for him since birth, and we can’t thank them enough. His kidney function has recently declined, and because we want him to be transplanted before he needs dialysis, they have helped us prepare for his transplant, which will be happening soon.

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.