Local boy receives life-saving kidney transplant
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A local kid has a new lease on life after a life-saving kidney transplant.
That transplant came from a stranger.
Noah Mikel was born with a rare disease called prune belly syndrome.
It impacted his bladder, lungs, kidneys and other internal organs.
For three days a week, for the last seven years, Noah had to go to Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health for dialysis treatments from his home in Nappanee in Elkart County.
“There’s been times when he was just laying there and lifeless. Nurses were like, ‘talk to him, he can hear you,’ so I’d sit and talk to him,” said Lee Mikel, Noah’s father.
Because of those treatments Noah needed a live donor.
IU Health says there are over 100,000 people waiting for a kidney, but less than 20,000 transplants are performed every year.
Lee’s surprise donor was Jane Forbes. Forbes is a transplant social worker at IU Health.
She says being able to save this boy’s life has changed her life.
“Not until you see the eyes of the other people do you realize what it feels like,” she said. “He’s fabulous. The neatest young man and how blessed I am to know him.”
Noah’s journey was chronicled on a Facebook page. That page includes when Noah and Forbes met for the first time this past weekend.
For more information on organ transplants click here.