ELKTON, Va. (WHSV) – An 11-year-old boy from Elkton is in need of a kidney donor and his family is seeking the community’s help to find one. Bradley Monger was born with kidney disease, his left kidney has no function and his right is down to just 27 percent function.
“He needs a kidney so he doesn’t go into dialysis. If he doesn’t have a kidney he’s going into dialysis and they don’t think he’ll make it back from dialysis,” said Rebecca Monger, Bradley’s mother.
In their search for a donor, Bradley’s family has connected with Brian Martindale, a Michigan man who helps find donors for kids across the U.S.
“There are 1,200 children that need a kidney today and there are over 4,000 other children in the United States that are on Dialysis or in treatment that will need a kidney and when I found out those facts that put me to work, I’ve got to do something about this now,” said Martindale, the Executive Director of Kidneys For Kids.
10 years ago Martindale donated one of his kidneys to a ten-year-old girl in his hometown of Bay City Michigan allowing her to live a happy healthy life. Today he runs Kidneys for Kids, an organization he started to advocate for children like Bradley.
Next year Martindale will travel to 48 states advocating for children in need of transplants, his goal is to find 100 kidney donors for 100 children in need.
“A preemptive kidney transplant for a child is very important. It gives them a better chance of keeping a kidney for what could be their lifetime. When getting a donated kidney from a living person the average expectancy of the kidney is 15 to 20 years of function, if you get a kidney from a person that’s passed the average span is only 6 to 8 years of function,” said Martindale.
Despite having to make regular trips to the doctor since he was born, Bradley is a regular fun-loving kid.
“He loves rollercoasters and he loves the jump park. He’s just happy, you’d never think anything was wrong with him,” said Rebecca Monger.
Still, Bradley’s kidney disease greatly affects him, in addition to his regular visits to the doctor his immune system is very weak.
“If somebody in school is sick I don’t send him to school. Last year I homeschooled him because of COVID and because the doctors said his immune system wouldn’t take it,” said Monger.
Monger said that Bradley once got very sick when was eight years old
“It was scary, it took a lot out of him. The kid I’m used to seeing here running around the house was just laying around, that’s all he would do all day long for like two weeks was lay around,” she said.
Bradley’s family and Brian Martindale hope to find him a donor soon because if he was to start dialysis before he gets on there’s a greater chance his body will reject the donated kidney.
“We’re advocating for Bradley because he needs a kidney soon. They don’t know how long it will be before his kidney function drops below the 20 percent range and it can’t reach 10 percent without him going into dialysis,” said Martindale.
Bradley is in need of a donor with an A positive or type O blood type.
“I think he’d live a better life. He lives a pretty good life it’s just it’d make it easier on him, a lot easier, and we’ll know he’ll be around,” said Monger.
Anyone who is a match and is willing to donate a kidney to Bradley can reach out to Rebecca Monger directly at 540-607-8969 or contact Barbra Moore, Transplant Coordinator Assistant for Living Donors at UVA Health in Charlottesville. Moore’s phone number is 434-243-5610 and her email is bjm7m@virginia.edu.
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