Treatment for kidney disease is leading to a brighter future for 7-year-old Emmett – Hamilton Health Sciences

“It was a helpless and humiliating experience posting on Facebook that my child needed a kidney to stay alive,” recalls Leanne Morton.

Her son Emmett, now 7, had kidney failure and the best chance of success was to get a kidney from a living donor. One of Leanne’s friends shared her Facebook post and a friend of theirs replied willing to donate.

“Out of the sheer goodness of heart, an altruistic donor wanted to help my child,” says Leanne.

Today, Emmett’s path to recovery is clearer. But it wasn’t always like that… not even close.

Emmett spent the early years of his life surviving, not learning, and thriving.

Survive, not thrive

Emmet Morton

“Emmett spent the early years of his life surviving, not learning, and thriving,” says Leanne.

When Emmett was born at Hamilton Health Sciences’ McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH), he remained in the NICU for months.

He had breathing problems, needed a feeding tube to eat, suffered from recurring UTIs that turned into blood infections, and needed IV antibiotics.

Before he was born, doctors expected problems with his kidneys. They thought he could be born with only one kidney, but he was born with two kidneys fused together.

At the age of three months he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and had to start dialysis. When the kidneys stop working properly, a dialysis machine takes over and acts as a kidney for the patient to remove toxins and excess fluid from the body.

Kidney and nerve complications

Kidney disease wreaked havoc on his bones.

Emmett also had a spinal cord complication that required surgery when he was eight months old. During the operation, he went into cardiac arrest and required resuscitation, followed by a stay in intensive care and follow-up by the cardiac team.

“Kidney disease wreaked havoc on his bones,” says Leanne. “Once he was walking across the living room, fell and broke his arm. He had a lot of broken bones and cracks.”

Emmett has also been diagnosed with Duane syndrome, which affects eye movement. He was on the verge of going blind before it was treated.

Four years after starting dialysis, Emmett received a kidney from the donor who volunteered via Facebook. The transplant took place at SickKids Hospital in Toronto, Ontario’s flagship pediatric kidney transplant hospital. After surgery, patients from the Hamilton area are returning to the MCH for recovery as part of the hospital collaboration.

The new kidney didn’t work well after his surgery and the family thought they needed to start dialysis again. After figuring out what went wrong, Emmett underwent surgery to put in a new stent to allow urine to drain from his transplanted kidney. “Then everything worked wonderfully,” says Leanne.

To say that Emmett and his family have been through a lot is an understatement.

He’s also needed insulin to treat high blood sugar, calcium IVs, surgery to remove his parathyroid gland, hernia surgery, feeding tubes and more throughout his health journey.

dr Steven Arora

“Emmett’s main issue is his kidney disease, which led us to discover other issues in Emmett that required all the expertise available at MCH to provide him with the best care,” says Dr. Steven Arora, pediatric nephrologist at MCH. “Some of these are complications of his kidney disease, as he had kidney failure as an infant that required dialysis. Others are things we identified in his care that needed to be addressed. I think Emmett has probably seen almost every specialist at MCH in his life.”

Stronger than ever after surgery

Emmett has probably seen almost every specialist at MCH in his life.

Emmett’s father, Ian, says that over the past four years in the hospital he has learned that parents need to stand up for their children because they are the parents who know them best.

But after all the challenges, the Morton family can only report positive things about the care at the MCH.

“The staff was very understanding, accommodating, and patient with me on the days I ran out of patience,” says Leanne. “We have been to almost every ward and each has such a caring and loving support system. We learned how great the Child Life team is at explaining the medical part to Emmett so he understands what will happen to him if he has surgery and he can learn how to process the emotions and himself can prepare for it. As difficult as it is physically for him, it is also difficult emotionally.”

Emmett’s resilience is something to admire.

“The resilience that we’ve seen in Emmett isn’t something you see every day. It’s really amazing,” says Arora. “All the things we ask of Emmett and his family will be met with a positive attitude as we understand there will always be challenges, readmissions and setbacks. And yet he’s getting stronger every day on his journey with kidney disease. Of course, his parents are very committed to caring for him and that reflects in his success.”

Arora says that Emmett and his family have achieved celebrity status with the hospital’s health teams. “You’re quite famous on the stations.”

Eat everything in sight

If we think he can’t do something, he’s proven time and time again that he can.

Morton family

Everything has been a lot more normal since the transplant, says Leanne. After getting his new kidney, Emmett wanted to eat everything in sight. “It’s a good problem,” she says. Now he only relies on his feeding tube to drink water.

Emmett now visits the hospital every few months instead of almost every day. “Being home as a family was so nice compared to the chaos of traveling back and forth every day to be together,” says Ian.

Emmett is waiting to have tubes put in his ears this month to help him hear better.

His kidney function is very stable, but he will likely need another kidney transplant in the future. Transplanted kidneys have a limited lifespan. On average, patients like Emmett will need three or four kidney transplants over the course of their lifetime, Arora says.

School is challenging so his family and teachers are working with him to close his learning gap now that he has the energy to focus on school subjects.

“Emmett showed us that he always lives by his own rules,” says Leanne. “If we think he can’t do something, he’s proven time and time again that he can.”

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