Hi, I'm organizing this on behalf of the Higginbotham family, and more specifically, Brandon Higginbotham. He is currently on dialysis and needing a kidney transplant. Brandon's first kidney transplant journey began in 2002 when he was just ten years old. He was diagnosed with kidney failure that August, and received a kidney from his mother, Melissa, that December. The cause of his kidney failure has never been fully known/established. It is speculated that it was caused by being prescribed Tamiflu the year before to help with symptoms of influenza. At that time, Tamiflu was only FDA-approved for less than two years. After his kidney transplant, he has had to take a variety of medications daily to keep his body from rejecting his donated kidney. You can imagine our frustration, he has to be dependent on medications when it's possible a medication (Tamiflu) caused all this, to begin with, but that's a whole other story for another time. His daily medications suppress his immune system, making him at high risk for even the common cold. I still have the memory engraved in my brain a year post-transplant of his grandfather carrying Brandon to the car to rush to the hospital. We almost lost him over a stomach virus. These medications have also caused him to have MANY side effects. It was like he woke up one day, and his entire appearance changed. He had excessive body hair growth. Which was noticeable on his arms, legs, and eyebrows. Excessive gum growth, his gums at one time covered 85% of his teeth, which resulted in another operation to remove the overgrown gums. However, the gum growth occurred again the following year, but this time instead of gum removal, the doctors thought it was best to remove his teeth, since it was inevitable that it was going to happen again. Not many 12 year olds are shaving away a full beard, and have to have dentures. It stunted his height, and the only route from there was to start nightly human growth hormone injections. Which he endured for 3-4 years. He has dealt with severe acne, mood swings, high blood pressure, and just any negative side effect you can think of. Doctors expect him to be diabetic by the time he is in his 50s. He has been married since 2017, and was told this time last year, that because of his medications, it is possible he could never produce a child. Brandon has had hill after hill to climb. He is very quiet, and reserved. Even now at 32 years old, you don't hear him complain or talk about any of the obstacles he has faced. Not only the physical pain he deals with, but even the emotional pain. He just keeps it all bundled to himself. His normalcy came from being at his Dad's mechanic shop after school. That is where a majority of his free time, even almost 17 years later, has been spent. Dad went into mechanics when he was just a teenager, and even though he had over 36 years of experience, Brandon's industry intelligence was always a marvel to Dad. Doctors have always said that the expected life span of a donated kidney is 18 years. December 2024 was (thankfully) the 20th anniversary of his transplant, and he spent it in the hospital with no kidney function because of complications with covid. After a week in the hospital, by the grace of God and the hospital staff, he got to go home and left with about 20% kidney function. Two weeks later, our father was rushed to the same hospital, and after an eleven-day stay, he passed away just a room down from where Brandon was weeks before. We continue to keep Dad's business going while preparing for our next journey. After many months of his siblings trying to be candidates to donate a kidney to him, testing concluded them to not be compatible donors. Now, Brandon has 12-15 hours of dialysis treatments a week while he waits his turn on the organ transplant list. The purpose of this LFEBridge is to help with unforeseen medical costs, travel costs, overnight stays at/near the hospital, and loss of wages while he is down. We have gone through so much stress, grief, worry, and pain in the last several months. All I can think to do at this time is to find a way to help lessen the financial stress on my family. They have sincerely been through enough. If you do not have the means to donate (which is so understandable given the state of this economy), we would just appreciate the prayers and kind wishes that you have to spare. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I appreciate your interest in helping Brandon.
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