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Health Spotlight: Young man receives the gift of three transplants

Health Spotlight: Young man receives the gift of three transplants

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Currently, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. need an organ transplant.

While it’s considered lucky to be matched once – we’re about to meet a young man who received three organs at three different times in his life.

Joseph “Joe Joe” Sanchez Munoz, 19, lights up whenever he plays his guitar. He wrote a special song telling how he survived three organ transplants.

“Music was my medicine and it got me through,” said Joe Joe.

Joe Joe was born with multicystic dysplastic kidney disease, meaning his kidneys were severely underdeveloped.

A devastating diagnosis in itself, but shortly afterward his mom, Elena was told that Joe Joe also had liver cancer.

“My whole world was shattered ‘cause I didn’t know what to expect,” said Elena.

At just 10 months old, Joe Joe received a liver transplant. Subsequent chemotherapy affected his kidneys and while Joe Joe ultimately received a new kidney, he continued to defy the slim odds and was healthy until this past year.

This time, his heart was in jeopardy – a result of being immunocompromised.

“Most programs would say that the risk is too high and not offer this much therapy to allow a young child to survive,” said Michael Ma, MD, a Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies Program doctor at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.

Ma and his team of cardiologists worked alongside liver and kidney specialists to map out a plan to save Joe Joe’s life.

“They allowed him to have a third miracle of life,” said Elena.

“He is now in remission from heart, liver, and kidney disease, and is doing really well,” said Ma.

“Thank you so much for helping me,” Joe Joe said to Stanford.

Joe Joe is so appreciative of the care he received through the years at Stanford that he wants to pay it forward – he’s now considering entering the nursing field, like his mom.

This story was created from a script aired on WISH-TV. Health Spotlight is presented by Community Health Network.