Brooks teen desperate for kidney donor

Little did he know, that endless fatigue and what he thought was just the ordinary flu turned out to be something worse.

After a number of tests, the teen was taken by ambulance to Alberta Children’s Hospital. That’s when doctors discovered Logan had a rare autoimmune disease called Anca Vasculitis, a disorder that attacks the kidneys.

“Basically it made my immune system turn against my kidneys, and damaged them to the point where they couldn’t function anymore, they were brought down to about eight percent kidney function,” he said.

Logan spent weeks in hospital and for his family watching him day by day was tough.

” I think we have learned as a family how to grow closer, and that bond really helps us get through. Logan is going through the worst part of this but we have all realized that we have to be there for each one of us because we all have hard days,” mom Angelina Nelson said.

Logan needs a new kidney.

But no one in Logan’s family matches his o -negative blood type, a hard reality for his family who would do anything to make Logan feel healthy again.

” That was difficult you know we thought we could be a match to help him, but that wasn’t the way it is so it was very difficult, and then we thought well now we have some time to find a match for him,” said Logan’s father Jeff Nelson.

Logan is on the waiting list for a deceased donor and he will start dialysis in a few weeks.

But his family is desperate to find him a living donor so that the donated kidney will function better and last longer. At 17-years-old Logan has big dreams of going to college and possibly entering the food sciences or medical field. His family says having a donated kidney will allow him to accomplish those dreams without hooking up to dialysis regularly.

” We just want to be able to see him continue to thrive without further sickness, and a donation of a kidney would give him that opportunity,” mom Angelina Nelson said.

Nelson is pleading with the public to consider organ donation to help people who need it. She is also urging parents to understand the signs of kidney disease so that their children can get access to treatment sooner rather than later.

“Kidney disease is very silent, and if your child continues to tell you that they have headaches and they are tired, and they just don’t feel like themselves and they are losing weight, even though they may seem small there really is something behind some of those things,” said Nelson

Anyone interested in donating their kidney to Logan is asked to contact the family at kidney4logan@outlook.com

The living donor program can also be reached at 403 944 4635.

by Tiffany Goodwein

Brooks teen desperate for kidney donor

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