SEATTLE — Belinda Hudson and her son Nigel Dalton were first in the hospital together 19 years ago. That was for his birth. This time, it’s his rebirth. Nigel was born with irreversible kidney damage and recently started dialysis. “He was becoming increasingly fatigued, having a poor appetite and there was just changes in him physically,” Belinda described. She wanted to donate a kidney to her son, but she wasn’t compatible. “I was pretty devastated,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m the mom. What do you mean? I don’t understand.'” Instead of going onto the waiting list – which can take years – the family joined a kidney chain where a living donor gives a kidney to a stranger and then gets a kidney for a loved one. Belinda’s donated kidney went to a patient at UCLA. Their chain lasted three weeks and involved 28 surgeries across the country, with 14 donors and 14 recipients. It was a first for Seattle Children’s. “It’s been an amazing breakthrough that’s been more rapidly adopted in adult transplantation. We were excited to be able to offer it and enroll our patients in that program,” said Dr. Patrick Healey, the transplant division chief at Children’s. Nigel’s kidney came from a young man in California. “I won’t have to do dialysis anymore,” Nigel said. “And hopefully i’m going to live a life I’ve already been living.” And it starts on his 19th birthday, thanks to the gift of life and love. “You’re never getting another gift from me again,” Belinda laughed. “This is it. This is your lifetime gift.” “I’ll take it,” Nigel said.
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