Pediatric transplant has the ability to create a lifelong change for children who have serious illnesses that keep them from being kids. Philosophically, we’re helping give someone a second chance at life. 

Kidney and liver failure are life-threatening illnesses, and without a transplant, these patients won’t survive into adulthood. And it’s not because of anything they did. They were born with conditions that cause liver and kidney failure. 

I’m not sure that I bring the magic, but giving kids an opportunity to live a normal childhood is hopefully what I bring to patients. 

Transplant is a very resource intensive effort. Patients take medications for life. They have lots of visits here, which disrupts their school. We care for kids from across Texas and from surrounding states, so we try to do things remotely and use technology when we can. But those resources are expensive and philanthropic investments help us care for patients better in that way.