Daltyn Veater在他20年的生活中经历了很多.
当他六个月大的时候，Daltyn被诊断出患有 多囊肾病（PKD）, a genetic condition that causes damaging cysts to grow on the 肾脏s. By the time Daltyn was diagnosed with PKD, the damage to his 肾脏s was extensive. One 肾脏 had lost all function, while the other was only functioning at 20% capacity.
Daltyn started dialysis when he was just 18 months old and had his first 肾移植 当他两岁的时候.
“That 肾脏 was so good, it did great for a long time,” said Monica Veater, Daltyn’s mom. “When he turned 15, we started noticing some higher creatinine levels in his lab results. The doctors told us that this indicated his 肾脏 was losing function, 而且他们也没想到这种情况会持续太久.”
Three years later, when Daltyn was a senior in high school, he was back on dialysis. 达尔廷和他的家人住在犹他州的潘古奇. The closest dialysis clinic is in Cedar City—an hour drive one way.
“大发娱乐会在凌晨4:30出发去锡达城, 透析到上午10:30, 然后回家,”莫妮卡说。. “大发娱乐每周这样做三天，持续了一年半.”
To ease the travel burden, Monica and Daltyn temporarily relocated to St. 去犹他州的乔治接受为期六周的透析训练. Once the training ended, Monica ran Daltyn’s dialysis in their home. 他们从10月份开始进行家庭透析, 但在三月, Daltyn began to have extremely low blood pressure during the last hour of his dialysis.
“We were looking really hard for a 肾脏 for Daltyn at this point,”莫妮卡说。. “We tested everyone on both my side of the family and my husband’s side of the family. 没有匹配.”
Monica and her husband knew finding a suitable donor for Daltyn was going to continue to be problematic.
“When a patient has a second 肾移植, it’s always harder to find a matching donor,” said 米克罗斯Z. 莫尔纳博士，医学博士. “The body starts producing antibodies that can reduce the chances of finding a donor in the future. 这并非不可能，但可能非常困难.”
莫尔纳是内科的一名教授, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of 犹他州. He is also the medical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation Program and Living Donor Transplantation Program at 大发娱乐.
“In an ideal situation, the patient matches with a 活体供,” Molnar said. “但这并不总是会发生.”
幸运的是，Daltyn和其他可能处于同样境地的人, there is a way to exp和 pool of possible donors through the paired 肾脏 exchange program.
犹他健康大学是 国家肾脏登记处 和 配对肾脏捐赠联盟. Being involved in these national programs expands the donation pool so that each recipient finds the most compatible match possible through two scenarios:
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经典配对捐赠—Matching two donor/recipient pairs who are incompatible by “trading” donors.
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捐赠链—Cross-matching more than two donor/recipient pairs to find the most compatible match possible.
Several donor/recipient pairs may swap recipients so that each recipient receives a compatible 肾脏.
“My sister-in-law wanted to donate her 肾脏 to Daltyn,”莫妮卡说。. “她不是他的对手, but she was totally dedicated to being a part of the paired 肾脏 exchange program. 她使达尔廷的移植手术成为可能.”
To find a matching donor for Daltyn, a national paired 肾脏 exchange program was the only option. 在…的大发娱乐下 犹他大学健康移植中心，达尔廷匹配 活体供 在马萨诸塞州的波士顿. He had his transplant surgery on April 12, 2023, his 20th birthday.
Michael Zimmerman，医学博士，FACS他做了移植手术. Zimmerman is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant & 高级肝胆外科教授. He is also the surgical director of the adult 肾脏 and pancreas transplant program, the director of the pediatric 肾移植 program at Primary Children’s Hospital, 移植研究主任.
Zimmerman has been performing transplant surgeries for more than 15 years and is grateful he and his team can help Daltyn and other patients like him.
“With teamwork from the whole group we were able to get through the transplant,” Zimmerman said. 现在，移植手术将近一年后，他恢复得很好.”
达尔廷是65人之一 活体肾移植 2023年在uu of U Health.
“The transplant program at U of U Health is the number one program in the state,” Molnar said . “The goal of our program is to break down all the barriers to a transplant, 大发娱乐拥有的资源使大发娱乐能够做到这一点. 即使你很难匹配，大发娱乐也有解决方案.”
Another goal of the program that is important to both Molnar and Zimmerman is to give people a second chance at life.
“Especially for someone like Daltyn who is only 20 years old,” Molnar said.
移植手术后，达尔廷一直很忙. Raising sheep has been a hobby of Daltyn’s since he was 8 years old.
“当他在做透析的时候, 他只能隔一天左右去看看他的羊, 这很难,”莫妮卡说。.
现在, he has much more time to tend to his sheep farm and sell his prize-winning sheep to the 4H community.
如果你发现自己在潘奇奇, 犹他州, 你可能会看到达尔廷和他的银色实验室在一起, 赶着柳树穿过街道和草地，照料他的牛群.
“这是一个奇迹，太棒了，”莫妮卡说. “For a while there, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to find him a 肾脏. But here we are nearly a year after a successful transplant, and he’s really doing great.”
