GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — At ten years old, Jaelle Bornman began feeling weak while running at school.
"We were cheering on her to run, run, run," said Cornelius Bornman, her dad, "She looked at us, 'I can't, I'm tired.' The next day, we ended up taking her to the emergency room."
Doctors found she had kidney and heart failure at the same time. They told her family Jaelle's kidneys stopped growing, unable to keep up with her body as she got older.
"It's a scary situation to see," said Cornelius, "You look at your child, and she's got six different IVs and 12 bags dripping into her and a tube down her throat."
Jaelle was taken to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital that same day. Her family quickly learned she would need a kidney transplant.
"I just told my wife, I said, 'I'm going to be the donor,'" said Cornelius.
A father's intuition was correct: he was a match. Five months later, after numerous trips for dialysis, Jaelle and her dad wheeled in for the dual surgery.
Her body accepted her dad's kidney perfectly.
"She's one of the success stories that we always want to tell people about," said Julia Steinke, the medical director of pediatric kidney transplant program, "Like, how living donation makes a huge improvement."
According to OrganDonor.gov, 103,327 people are waiting for an organ donation in the United States. 17 people die each day while waiting.
"Living donor transplants last longer," said Steinke, "Children will need more than one transplant. So, if we can get the best kidney that's going to last the longest, knowing that that's their first investment in their life, they'll only need a second installment and maybe a third installment with another kidney."
Cornelius is doing his part to make it known being a living donor does not slow a person down.
This year, he competed in the Living Donor Games Championship in Connecticut, competing in CrossFit challenges, and took third place.
"The goal of it is just to show that you can live a strong healthy life, that donating a kidney doesn't ruin your, your future," said Cornelius. "It was exciting. We got to meet new people there and just talk to them and hear their stories, which I loved."
Jaelle joined her dad on the trip, and has been training together with him.
"It was comforting to know that other people have done the same thing that we have," said Jaelle, "And you feel like you're not alone."
In the two years since her first hospital visit, Jaelle is active once again. She plays basketball, volleyball, rides horses, acts in theater and more.
"It's helped me grown and be more mature than I think I could have without it," said Jaelle.
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