Daltyn Veater has been through a lot in his 20 years of life.
When he was six months old, Daltyn was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a genetic condition that causes damaging cysts to grow on the kidneys. By the time Daltyn was diagnosed with PKD, the damage to his kidneys was extensive. One kidney had lost all function, while the other was only functioning at 20% capacity.
Daltyn started dialysis when he was just 18 months old and had his first kidney transplant when he was 2 years old.
鈥淭hat kidney was so good, it did great for a long time,鈥 said Monica Veater, Daltyn鈥檚 mom. 鈥淲hen he turned 15, we started noticing some higher creatinine levels in his lab results. The doctors told us that this indicated his kidney was losing function, and they didn鈥檛 expect it to last much longer.鈥
Three years later, when Daltyn was a senior in high school, he was back on dialysis. Daltyn and his family live in Panguitch, Utah. The closest dialysis clinic is in Cedar City鈥攁n hour drive one way.
鈥淲e would leave at 4:30am to get to Cedar City, run dialysis until 10:30am, and then come home,鈥 Monica said. 鈥淲e did that three days a week for a year and a half.鈥
To ease the travel burden, Monica and Daltyn temporarily relocated to St. George, Utah, for a six-week dialysis training. Once the training ended, Monica ran Daltyn鈥檚 dialysis in their home. They started in-home dialysis in October, but in March, Daltyn began to have extremely low blood pressure during the last hour of his dialysis.
鈥淲e were looking really hard for a kidney for Daltyn at this point,鈥 Monica said. 鈥淲e tested everyone on both my side of the family and my husband鈥檚 side of the family. There were no matches.鈥
Monica and her husband knew finding a suitable donor for Daltyn was going to continue to be problematic.
鈥淲hen a patient has a second kidney transplant, it鈥檚 always harder to find a matching donor,鈥 said Miklos Z. Molnar, MD, PhD. 鈥淭he body starts producing antibodies that can reduce the chances of finding a donor in the future. It鈥檚 not impossible, but it can be very difficult.鈥
Molnar is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah. He is also the medical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation Program and Living Donor Transplantation Program at University of Utah Hospital.
鈥淚n an ideal situation, the patient matches with a living donor,鈥 Molnar said. 鈥淏ut that doesn鈥檛 always happen.鈥
Luckily for Daltyn and others who may be in this same position, there is a way to expand the pool of possible donors through the paired kidney exchange program.
麻豆学生精品版 is part of the and the . Being involved in these national programs expands the donation pool so that each recipient finds the most compatible match possible through two scenarios:
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鈥擬atching two donor/recipient pairs who are incompatible by 鈥渢rading鈥 donors.
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鈥擟ross-matching more than two donor/recipient pairs to find the most compatible match possible.
Several donor/recipient pairs may swap recipients so that each recipient receives a compatible kidney.
鈥淢y sister-in-law wanted to donate her kidney to Daltyn,鈥 Monica said. 鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 a match for him, but she was totally dedicated to being a part of the paired kidney exchange program. She made Daltyn鈥檚 transplant possible.鈥
To find a matching donor for Daltyn, a national paired kidney exchange program was the only option. With the help of the 麻豆学生精品版 Transplant Center, Daltyn matched with a living donor in Boston, Massachusetts. He had his transplant surgery on April 12, 2023, his 20th birthday.
Michael Zimmerman, MD, FACS, performed the transplant surgery. Zimmerman is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant & Advanced Hepatobiliary Surgery at the U鈥檚 school of medicine. He is also the surgical director of the adult kidney and pancreas transplant program, the director of the pediatric kidney transplant program at Primary Children鈥檚 Hospital, and the director of transplant research.
Zimmerman has been performing transplant surgeries for more than 15 years and is grateful he and his team can help Daltyn and other patients like him.
鈥淲ith teamwork from the whole group we were able to get through the transplant,鈥 Zimmerman said. 鈥淎nd now, nearly a year after the transplant, he鈥檚 doing great.鈥
Daltyn was one of 65 living donor kidney transplants at U of U Health in 2023.
鈥淭he transplant program at U of U Health is the number one program in the state,鈥 Molnar said . 鈥淭he goal of our program is to break down all the barriers to a transplant, and the resources we have allow us to do that. Even if you are very hard to match, we have solutions.鈥
Another goal of the program that is important to both Molnar and Zimmerman is to give people a second chance at life.
鈥淓specially for someone like Daltyn who is only 20 years old,鈥 Molnar said.
Since the transplant, Daltyn has been busy. Raising sheep has been a hobby of Daltyn鈥檚 since he was 8 years old.
鈥淲hile he was on dialysis, he could only go check on his sheep every other day or so, and that was hard,鈥 Monica said.
Now, he has much more time to tend to his sheep farm and sell his prize-winning sheep to the 4H community.
If you ever find yourself in Panguitch, Utah, you might just see Daltyn鈥攁ccompanied by his silver lab, Willow鈥攄riving through the streets and meadows tending to his herd.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a miracle and it鈥檚 wonderful,鈥 Monica said. 鈥淔or a while there, we weren鈥檛 sure if we were going to be able to find him a kidney. But here we are nearly a year after a successful transplant, and he鈥檚 really doing great.鈥
