Local family shares experience with pediatric transplant waiting list

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    GRANBY, Connecticut (WFSB) — April 18 to the 24 is National Pediatric Transplant week.

It’s a week dedicated to ending the pediatric transplant waiting list.

A young girl in Connecticut was able to get off that list when she found an unexpected match for a kidney transplant.

Piper Lundin, of Granby, loves gymnastics and lacrosse.

She was always an active child, until one day in 2016 the 7-year-old came home with a terrible stomachache.

“I couldn’t do gymnastics. I couldn’t even go to school,” Lundin said.

Her parents immediately brought her to the emergency room.

“They determined she had a disease called HSP,” Sarah Lundin said.

Anyone looking to become a donor can register at: donatelife.net/register

“Henoch-Schonlein purpura which is a fairly rare disease,” Dr. Oscar Serrano, of Hartford HealthCare, explained.

The disease causes inflammation and bleeding in the small blood vessels.

The family worked with Dr. Serrano, who said over a few years Piper got to the point where she needed a kidney transplant.

She was waiting to get one in February 2020. When the pandemic hit, and the transplant program shut down.

Instead of waiting for the program to start up, Piper’s parents decided to get tested to see if they were matches to donate their kidneys.

“It was a beautiful thing to both be a match,” said Pipers father Mark Lundin.

He was originally going to give Piper his kidney, but when doctors started to operate, they found they couldn’t safely remove his kidney.

“We came out of the surgery to not the success we were looking for,” Mark Lundin said.

Five weeks later, after Mark recovered from surgery, Piper’s mother Sarah stepped in to donate her kidney to her daughter.

“It was great. I feel great. I feel very lucky that I was able to,” Sarah said.

After a long journey, Piper is finally back to being a kid.

“I feel amazing. I started lacrosse back up again a month ago and I feel great,” Piper said.

And she owes it all to her parents.

“I don’t know how I could have gotten through it without them,” she added.

More information about Pediatric Transplant Week can be found on DonateLife.net.

Anyone looking to become a donor can register at: donatelife.net/register

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