VERNON – Tyler Watson first appeared on Global Okanagan almost 20 years ago, when his kidney transplant broke new ground in B.C. Now he needs another transplant. It’s not clear how long he’ll have to wait this time for the kidney donation he needs.
Watson had his original transplant in July 1998 when he was just two years old. At the time he was the youngest and smallest person to ever receive a kidney transplant in British Columbia.
“I kind of wish he wasn’t the first one to go,” said his mother Renee Webber in 1998 before Tyler had the surgery.
“I’d like to see more experience with the little guys, but I guess they’ve got to start somewhere.”
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His father donated the kidney and for many years that gift paid off.
Tyler was able to grow up without more dialysis.
However, in 2013 his health started declining.
His body was slowly rejecting the donated kidney and by the spring of 2014, just before his high school graduation, his kidney function decreased to the point where he had to resume time-consuming dialysis.
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He’s now 19 but the regular dialysis appointments mean it’s not easy to live a normal life and Tyler will have to continue regular dialysis until he gets another kidney.
He’s not alone: more than 450 people around the province are waiting for kidney transplants.
That lengthy list of people in need is one of the reasons the Kidney Foundation wants to see more people register as organ donors.
“Ninety-five per cent of people think that they are registered as an organ donor but only 20 per cent are right now so they can go to Service B.C. and register there,” says Nancy Varner, a volunteer with The Kidney Foundation of Canada.
“We need to have 100 per cent registered so that we don’t have 457 waiting.”
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Tyler is just hoping to get a transplant so he can move on with his life outside the dialysis unit.
The pool of potential kidney donors who would be a match for Tyler has also decreased since he was a toddler.
His mother was match back in 1998, but since then his body has built up antibodies so she is no longer a viable donor.
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