FOND DU LAC, Wis. — Last April, 6-year-old Greyson Neubauer was waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant.
He finally received one on April 16, 2024. Now, a year later, he’s thriving.
His mother Katie Rusch said leading up to the transplant, Neubauer had been on dialysis since he was a newborn. That’s because at just 7 months old, Neubauer had both of his kidneys removed.
“He was born at 32 weeks and he was in renal failure when he was born so that’s when it all started,” said Rusch. “They did genetic testing and found out he had this rare genetic disorder called Denys-Drash syndrome what put him at a high risk for Wilms Tumor.”
Even though Neubauer received his transplant last year, it came with its own set of complications.
“It was tough. I mean, you never want to see your child go through situations like,” said Rusch.“It was tough. I mean, you never want to see your child go through situations like,” said Rusch. “He was really sick. It was pretty scary this summer. They made some adjustments to his medications, and everything seems to be going pretty well now.”
Neubauer received a kidney through the paired exchange program at Children’s Wisconsin.
“It can touch so many different lives,” said Rusch. “It’s such a chain reaction. If you donate for someone and someone else donates for their person, it just keeps going.”
She said organ donation is important because it gave Greyson a chance to live a full life with fewer hospital visits.
