In February of 2017 Jeremy and Lisa Chesson from Palm Beach Gardens were expecting their second child, Colton. At 16 weeks into the pregnancy, they found out that Colton had urethral atresia in plain terms - he couldn’t urinate in the womb. The only solution for Colton to survive was for them to have fetal surgery in utero. The couple traveled across the world to Chile to have surgery on Colton while Lisa was pregnant with him with a world renown fetal surgeon. The surgery was successful, but later at 27 weeks pregnant, Lisa lost her amniotic fluid and was bed rested at St. Mary’s Medical Center for the remainder of her pregnancy. During this time, it was questionable if Colton would survive birth.

On June 28 Colton was born, but with a lot of complications. At 1 day old he was flown to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital with Stage 5 kidney failure, pneumothorax (air in his lung), and a ventilator. When Jeremy and Lisa arrived and met with the doctors, they found out that Colton would immediately need surgery for a dialysis catheter to be placed for him to survive. Colton had his first of 15 surgeries at 7 days old and started peritoneal dialysis at 10 days old. He spent three months in Miami. While there he was up and down, the couple almost lost him several times. He was finally discharged, and the family brought him home to his 3-year-old sister, Sienna. Colton would get dialysis daily, sometimes for 12 hours per day.

Over the next 2 years Colton was very sick and would be admitted to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami every three weeks, sometimes for months at a time. He incurred an infection in March of 2018, which led to a six-week hospital stay, 2 surgeries, and Colton also stopped eating. He would end up with g-tube for nutrition and fluids (kidney kids are fluid dependent). In June of 2019 Colton was finally ready to be listed on the kidney transplant list. His mother, Lisa was the likeliest match (due to her size) and went through the testing process to see if she was a match. She was a match, but during the testing process she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, needed intervention, and was no longer a candidate to donate her kidney. With most of their family members ruled out for being a match, they went to social media. Facebook is where Colton’s kidney donor was found. 21-year-old Drew Schneider saw his story, got tested, was a match, and immediately wanted to donate her kidney. September 30, 2018, Drew gave him her kidney and it was a success. Colton immediately started making up for lost time and developing into a smart little boy. Before transplant he wasn’t walking, eating, had very little energy, and was never able to go in the water (due to his dialysis catheter). All of this changed post-transplant.

Colton has had some ups and downs since his transplant and is now a very energetic, intelligent 5-year-old. But transplant is a treatment, not a cure. Since his transplant he has had several surgeries, hospital admissions, infections, and low immunity. He will be on anti-rejection medications his entire life, which strip his immunities (so his body doesn’t fight off his transplanted kidney). He goes for monthly labs, sometimes twice a month to ensure his kidney is working properly. Colton is in kindergarten this year and has missed more days than he has attended. One of his recent hospital admissions was in September when he contracted Covid for the third time, this time being the worst, which led to being in the PICU in Miami. It was a scary time for his family, as he had never been that ill. He has recovered and is now back in school but misses a lot due to other kids in the class being sick and his family trying to be careful. Colton is also hyperlexic (he started reading at a very young age) and loves to spell, learn new languages, making logos on Microsoft word, and playing with his sister, Sienna.

No day is ever taken for granted for the Chesson family.