Posted: Friday, March 27, 2015 4:30 am
Wendy Sledd | Special to the Herald
Copperas Cove High School students recently donned green shirts, hats, socks and even green dresses, but weren’t celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Instead they wore the color in honor of sophomore Dustin Tobalt, who is a kidney transplant survivor. March is Kidney Awareness Month.
“I felt honored and good that even the students I didn’t know supported me by wearing green,” Tobalt said.
It’s been a long eight years for Tobalt as his body attempted to battle back as his kidney was failing. On Sept. 4, 2007, doctors determined Tobalt needed a bladder augmentation and he had reflux, said Tracy Tobalt, his mother.
“He was good for a while until we moved to Indiana. Once we were there, he started to sleep a lot,” she said. “One day, Dustin went to lie down because he was not feeling good and he had a high fever. When he woke up in the morning, he began to throw up. He fell to the ground and passed out.”