I'd like you to meet Bennett

Friends

Through reading a friend's blog, I learned of the passing of Madeline Spohr, a little girl with hundreds of friends who never met her, but knew her through the blogosphere.

Like so many of the bloggers who linked to Maddie's page, I know this boy that I've never met, but I feel like his story needs to be told and shared. He's not my kid, but I want to use the little soapbox that is our blog to tell you about Bennett and what he means to me.

This is Bennett's page and story - the short version is that he's 5 years old and needs a new kidney.

I've never met this boy, nor have I ever met his family, but - well - in a way, he saved my son's life.

Bennett has ARPKD, which is a genetic condition which causes failure of the kidneys. It's a death sentence if it happens before birth.

Without kidneys, there's no amniotic fluid, without amniotic fluid, the lungs don't develop, without lungs, well - it'd be like stopping development at 20 weeks - it's universally fatal if it happens in utero. Except that Bennett's mother wouldn't accept that. She underwent a series of injections of saline into her uterus during the pregnancy, and despite being told by every doctor but one that it was hopeless, Bennett survived and today he's 5.

He's the only one.

He's a miracle.

Our first son, John Connor, also had ARPKD, and the input we got from the medical profession was unanimous - he was not going to survive.

I found the ARPKD support group on Yahoo, and through it met Bennett's mother who told me her story. Armed with that, we found a doctor who was willing to try the amniotic fluid injections on Anida. Did it work? Up to a point. In the first couple of weeks, we saw his lungs grow significantly. But you're not really supposed to stick needles into the amniotic sac, and in our case, the weakening caused it to rupture.

Still, the help he got for those couple of weeks gave John Connor a fighting chance at life, and when he was born at 29 weeks old, he fought valiantly for 29 hours before he just couldn't do it anymore. I owe those 29 hours to Bennett.

I can't give Bennett a kidney. He needs someone with blood type O. What I can do is to help spread his story, and that's where I'm asking for your help. I am not asking that you make my cause yours, but the more people that know Bennett, the greater the chance that a kidney donor will be identified. If you would, please take a moment to read Bennett's story, and then consider if you have a way of helping or passing it onto others.

Thank you.

Eric