Father donates kidney to save 10-year-old daughter's life

GREENFIELD, Ind. (AP) - It would have been easy to dwell on the negative - and there were times it was tempting.

When the doctors first said, "Kidney failure." When the hospital visits became more frequent and the stays, longer. When a transplant became the best option to save 10-year-old Katie Curry's life.

But the Currys are unfailingly positive people. They knew what to do.

They embraced one another. They trusted the doctors. They folded their hands in prayer.

And Danny Curry prepared to put his own health at risk, volunteering as a live kidney donor, to give his daughter the best chance possible at recovery.

"How do you not do this as a parent?" he told the Daily Reporter (http://bit.ly/1tKhhPS ). "I have two, she has one that..."

He trails off. It's too much, sometimes, talking about all that's happened in the last 18 months.

Danny and Jen Curry didn't know their daughter was sick - really sick - in the beginning.

Her symptoms varied, and at first, there always seemed to be a simple explanation. A little flu bug. Car sickness. The kinds of aches and pains all kids get.

But Katie kept getting sick.

It was summer of 2013 when the Currys went to see a specialist. They suspected food allergies might be the problem.

Jen took her daughter to the doctor that day. Danny, a minister at Park Chapel Christian Church, was in Nebraska for a church conference.

Jen expected a routine visit, a few tests before they headed home.

But the doctor who examined Katie became concerned while looking over the results of her blood work. Then a CT scan revealed a mass in Katie's upper chest.

Her parents thought back to a familiar complaint - whenever Katie was sick, she said she felt like she had a lump in her throat.

That lump, they would later learn, was her heart. Katie's failing kidneys had caused her blood pressure to skyrocket, enlarging her heart.

Katie would not be going home from the hospital that day.

When Jen called her husband, her voice was calm and even. The doctors still weren't sure exactly what was wrong, but Katie would have to be admitted.

Danny was utterly confused.

"I was like, 'For food allergies? They admit a kid for allergies?'" he said.

The rest of the day, Jen stayed with Katie as doctors put her through a battery of tests. Teams of doctors from all manner of specialties weighed in on the case, narrowing the possibilities.

Her heart and kidneys weren't working, though doctors weren't sure which organ was responsible for the damage.

Finally - an answer.

One of Katie's kidneys had never developed beyond the size it had been when she was an infant. And the other was giving out.

Kidneys play a key part in the body's regulation of blood pressure, and as Katie's began to fail, her blood pressure steadily climbed.

It was so high, the doctors were shocked Katie was still conscious.

Jen called Danny in Nebraska again, and this time, emotions ran high.

Kidney failure. Heart failure. Every word, a shock to the system.

Danny hardly had time to react. An auditorium of 1,500 high-schoolers was waiting on him to preach the morning message.

Danny, still reeling, went ahead with his sermon. He told the Old Testament story of Joseph, whose jealous brothers threw him in a pit.

It's hard to remember God loves you when you're surrounded by that kind of darkness, when you don't understand why something so awful is happening.

But he does, Danny told the students.

He needed to hear that message as much as anyone.

It took doctors two weeks to bring Katie's blood pressure down to a safe level. When word came she could finally go home from the hospital, the Currys were relieved.

They thought the worst was over.

Then the doctors began talking about dialysis, hooking their daughter up to machines for hours at a time to filter the toxins from her body.

It would be impossible to avoid unless Katie got a kidney transplant - and soon.

Jen was overwhelmed. She started to excuse herself from the room but didn't make it. She passed out right there over the examining table.

Her daughter wasn't going to get better.

"There's no medicines that can fix kidneys," Jen said.

In September of 2013, doctors went forward with removing one of Katie's kidneys.

The next nine months would be spent making monthly trips to the hospital for blood work.

Doctors were closely monitoring Katie's remaining kidney's filtration level. A healthy kidney ranks at a score of more than 100 on the scale that measures how much blood passes through the organ. Anything less than 30 on that scale is considered severe renal failure.

Katie's remaining kidney registered 25.

Doctors thought there could be time - years even, before Katie would need more serious medical intervention. But their hope was short-lived.

Keeping Katie's blood pressure down remained a constant battle, and her filtration levels continued to decline. Once a patient's dips to 10, they need dialysis to live. And even that is only a temporary solution.

By June, Katie's filtration level was 18 and dropping fast.

The search for a kidney donor began.

From the beginning, there was good news. Katie's blood type - Type A - made her potentially compatible with 85 percent of the population.

The chances of finding a live donor were excellent.

Her parents didn't hesitate. They were first to be tested.

Excess protein in Jen's system eliminated her as a possibility early in the process. Danny was a borderline match.

Additional testing took weeks, with two different teams of specialists - one advocating for Katie, one for Danny.

A person's good intentions don't guarantee they'll be accepted as a donor, Danny explained.

They must undergo extensive testing to determine that their own health won't be placed at risk if they give up an organ.

Once Danny was approved, things began to move quickly.

The transplant was originally scheduled for Nov. 19, but Katie had been struggling with bronchitis at the time and was too sick to undergo surgery. Surgery was delayed nearly a month, and the wait was agonizing.

Meanwhile, the Currys' church family rallied to support them.

After all, many parents in the congregation looked at Katie like one of their own - even those who had never met her.

With 1,500 people attending Park Chapel on an average Sunday morning, it'd be impossible for Danny to introduce his family to every church member.

But that never stopped him from trying.

From the time his children were babies, Danny has interwoven tales of life in the Curry house into his sermons. There's rarely a Sunday when a portrait of Katie and her younger brother, Caleb, doesn't make its way onto the big screen.

Katie and Caleb grew up in front of hundreds of people who applauded their successes, laughed at their antics and came to think of them as an extension of their own family.

And so, it's no surprise that on this latest journey, the church has been there every step of the way.

The Currys post frequent updates to Facebook and Twitter, and friends from across the globe reply with words of encouragement and prayers for healing.

By Dec. 15, the day of the transplant, Katie's filtration rate had dropped to 9, below the threshold requiring dialysis to survive.

Danny's kidney would be removed at IU Health University Hospital; Katie would undergo her surgery at Riley Hospital for Children.

The buildings are connected by a series of walkways, but it's nearly a half mile walk.

That morning, Danny stayed with his family in Katie's hospital room for as long as he could. Then, it was time.

"I hugged them, and I made the long walk over to IU by myself," he said. "But I didn't feel by myself at all because there were thousands of people praying for us, all over the world."

The kidney began functioning immediately.

Katie's numbers began to climb, and as Christmas neared, the Currys found so many reasons to be thankful.

Danny's quick recovery surprised his doctors, who marveled as his ability to walk the half mile of hospital hallways to his daughter's room just a day after his surgery.

And Katie began regaining her energy.

On Christmas Day, the family decided to spread the joy.

They packed a little red Riley wagon full of six boxes of doughnuts and made their way through the halls, passing them out to patients and staff.

"Word got out, and lots of different teams of doctors that didn't need to visit Katie came to 'check up' on her," Danny said.

The day after Christmas brought the best present yet - approval to take Katie home.

In some ways, it felt like crossing the finish line.

But the marathon is just beginning.

The next three to four months are critical. Katie is on a variety of medications that suppress her immune system. While the goal is to keep her body's natural defenses from attacking the new kidney, the medicine also leaves her susceptible to illness.

As the Currys update friends and family through Twitter and Facebook, the hashtag, #coverforcurrys, has become a social media movement among their supporters.

Members of the congregation who have followed Katie's progress have been posting photos of themselves, donning hospital masks.

But #coverforcurrys has taken on a broader meaning in the church, said Charlie Ketchen, a youth minister at Park Chapel.

"It started, people were putting on a hospital mask . but I think the main thing is just, 'Hey, we're covering you in our prayers,'" he said.

There's plenty of praying going on in the Curry household, too.

In the kitchen, an entire wall is dedicated to Bible verses to memorize - the parts of the good book that remind the Currys how lucky they are.

Written on one of the index cards in bright green marker is the simple phrase is from 1 Thessalonians: "Pray without ceasing."

It's Katie's personal favorite.

"Because it's the shortest," she said with a shy smile.

While Katie is still recovering from surgery, she's already seeing great dividends from her new kidney, which she has dubbed "Kinedy."

She doesn't require frequent naps the way she did before the transplant, and she can finally eat normal foods again.

The low-sodium diet she was on has given way to pickles and macaroni and cheese.

Her filtration level is up to 109, a signal that Kate and Kinedy are doing just fine.

There will be bumps ahead, but the Currys are prepared, with faith and family at the ready.

"We do what we can do and trust that God's gonna take care of the rest," Jen said.

It will be several months before Katie can return to school, but she's already looking forward to getting back to her classes at Greenfield Intermediate School, where she is a sixth-grader.

In the meantime, an industrial-sized pump of hand sanitizer is offered to anyone who stops by for a visit, including Katie's teachers, who come by each week to help her keep up on her school work.

The next few months will be punctuated by hospital visits - always with an overnight bag in hand, just in case - and inevitable ups and downs.

But the Currys' positivity hasn't waned.

"We're still in the midst of it, but it's a choice you have," Danny said. "One (road) is about worry and fear, and the other is 'look how far we've come.'"

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Information from: (Greenfield) Daily Reporter, http://www.greenfieldreporter.com