Chris Miller, Monica Vanderhorst and family. (Photo Courtesy Monica Vanderhorst)

By Jayson Taylor

Medicine Hat man living with Alport syndrome shows importance of kidney donations

May 18, 2023 | 12:11 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Early on in Brendan Vanderhorst’s life, his mother, Monica, noticed that something wasn’t right. Brendan began to complain of pains in his back and doctors discovered an issue with his kidneys. He was initially diagnosed with IgA nephropathy.

However, it turned out Brendan had a much more rare condition – Alport syndrome, which affects one in every 10,000 people.

Alport syndrome is a kidney disease that tends to affect men more than women. Monica states that she also has Alport syndrome but isn’t affected by it in the way that her son is. Alport also can result in hearing loss and eye-sight loss.

“When he was originally diagnosed, it was pretty shocking. We weren’t really sure what to expect, we had never heard of that before,” Monica says.

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Doctors told her that her son would start experiencing problems in his teen years, but his teen years came and went relatively pain-free. That was until a year and a half ago when problems snowballed, as Monica describes it.

Brendan then had to undergo a kidney transplant. Monica says that the transplant gives her son some temporary relief before the new kidney will have to be transplanted.

“The kidney transplant will give him a basically normal life, but it has a shelf life. It’ll give him, maybe, about 20 to 25 years before he needs another transplant,” Vanderhorst adds.

A match was needed for Brendan to have a transplant, his stepfather Chris Miller was found to be a match. Miller had to take time off work to recover from the transplant. A GoFundMe was set up to help financially support the family, as Brendan will need to recover.

Monica says that she hopes people see the importance of donating kidneys to those who need them.

“I just want people to know about kidney issues and donation. There is so many issues out there for people with kidney issues and there are so many little-known diseases out there. There are so many people out there who need a kidney.”

Monica says that despite having the disease, Brendan refuses to let it drag him down.