Last summer Kyle Gabster was just another normal teenager, preparing for his freshman year at Boulder Creek High School.  Kyle lives and breathes football,  he played for the Sabercats in Alliance Youth Sports as linebacker or whatever other position the team needed, usually playing the entire game.  He was on the practice field for freshman Jaguar football when something just didn’t seem right – it was hot, maybe not drinking enough water, maybe it’s just hot.  He finally ended up in the emergency room and was told he was in Kidney Failure.  After weeks in the hospital, tests and more tests, and second and third opinions, Kyle was diagnosed with a disease called Pauci-immune glomerulonephritis.  It’s an immune-mediated disease where the body attacks its own blood vessels in the kidneys, sinuses and eyes.  The disease is rare in children; it typically strikes people in their 50-60 years of age.

 

 

At first Kyle was determined to beat the disease and started strong chemotherapy like drugs to try and save his kidneys.  He wanted to play football – his first true love.  However the disease progressed and as of November 2011, Kyle needs a kidney transplant.  He is on dialysis until the drugs can get his Pauci-immune syndrome under control.  Only then will he be able to get the kidney transplant.  In the meantime he goes twice a week for dialysis and has a very different diet than most football playing teenagers.  A transplant will give Kyle a chance to regain some sort of normalcy for a 14 year old boy, but it also means he’ll never play football again.

 

As you can image medical expenses are overwhelming.  Medical insurance does not cover approximately $30,000 of the expense related to a kidney transplant, not to mention dialysis treatments and expensive rare medications for the disease. 

 

 

 

 

 

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