NORWALK, Ohio — Two-year-old Walker Bays is a ball of energy; his parents say you would never know he was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease at birth.
"We found out when I was pregnant that his kidneys looked a little bigger on the ultrasound. So, right away, we were transferred to Akron, and they basically told us he had a 50/50 shot that he was going to live," said Walker's Mom, Kaitie Patrick.
Walker started dialysis when he was three months old and has been on it every day since. Patrick says Walker would have to dialysis 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
"There were a couple of times before he started dialysis that he coded, and ... it was scary, but he's a little fighter," said Patrick.
Patrick said Walker has spent more time in the hospital than at home, but you would never be able to tell because he has always handled his health complications well.
"They were always telling us he was going to put up a fight when it came to eating and taking medications. But he's always eating, constantly playing, you'd never know that that he had all this stuff going on," said Patrick.
Over the years, his kidneys began to lose function, and in 2022, his kidneys were depleted to end-stage renal disease, which is the final stage of chronic disease. However, their lives would change on June 28 when Walker's parents received the call they'd been waiting for for two years and were going to Cincinnati.
"They called us and said they had [a] kidney for us from a deceased donor. So, we rushed to Cincinnati, he received his transplant ... it saved my life," said Patrick.
Patrick said Walker's new kidney should last 10-15 years.
"He has a little bit more freedom; we don't have to rush home at 7 p.m. to get him hooked up to dialysis, which is pretty amazing," said Patrick.
Their biggest priority is keeping Walker as safe and healthy as possible.
"Since he did receive a kidney from somebody else, he is on immune suppressant. So his body doesn't attack that kidney. But that also means that he can't be around big crowds of people; we need to make sure that we're washing our hands and sanitizing because he could get sick and he could lose that kidney," said Patrick.
One of Walker's favorite things is playing with his big brother, Liam Bays. Liam said he is happy to have more time to spend and play with his brother.
"It was a perfect fit, and I'm just really happy he found one because now we have more time together," said Liam.
Patrick says Walker is doing well, and once he awoke from his surgery, he immediately asked for pizza.
But all these procedures have put the family in significant debt; Patrick says they still owe $70,000 just for dialysis.
"A lot of times they would tell us he's not old enough to be on this medication, so we're not going to pay for it or try to not pay for certain dialysis things just because of how young he was," said Patrick.
With the community support, the family started a GoFundMe page to help with some medical bills. So far, they have raised $850 of their $25,000 goal. Click here if you would like to donate.
