Local boy to receive kidney from mom

This weekend as many celebrate Mother’s Day around loved ones and close friends, one local family will get to celebrate the holiday for the first time as they gear up for Eli’s Heroes 5K Run/Walk.

Eli is two years old and will be undergoing a parent to child kidney transplant surgery. Eli’s parents are members of CrossFit Imperial Valley, and when they heard of Eli’s condition they wanted to help.

News 11’s Nico Payne sat down with Eli’s family who shared his story.

“I was 18 weeks pregnant when he was diagnosed with lower urinary tract obstruction, so there was an obstruction in his urethra, so he wasn’t cycling the fluid while i was pregnant and that fluid backed up to his bladder, enlarged his bladder, and then that fluid went up to his kidney’s and his kidney’s blew up,” said Lizett Samaniego, Eli’s Mother.

Eli’s parents decided to have fetal surgery when he was 20 weeks which saved his lungs. But unfortunately when he was born his kidneys were both shut down.

“He was one week old when he started peritoneal dialysis and we were up at San Diego at Rady’s, we were there for nine weeks and he was released when he was nine weeks old, we brought him home and from there till now that he is two years old he’s been receiving peritoneal dialysis overnight for eight hours,” explained Samaniego.

Lizett and her husband Israel are active members of CrossFit Imperial Valley, a place where over time they feel they have become part of a family.

“CrossFit has been a lifesaver for us, we started before I was even pregnant with my son. It just clears our mind, it really does. I mean that hour that we have there, it just like there is nothing on my mind, you’re not thinking about his medications or the insurance bills or calling which doctor,” said Samaniego.

“They’re super nice people with a very good attitude all the time, very positive, so when I heard about that I was like wow,” said Arnaldo Robles, CrossFit Trainer.

Other members within the CrossFit family felt the same way. CrossFit Imperial Valley will be hosting a 5k run/walk and showdown this Saturday in support of Eli and his upcoming surgery which is planned towards the end of June.

In Eli’s case his mom was a match and she will be donating her kidney for her son.

“We knew I was the same blood type and not my husband, which is why he couldn’t donate and then after that it is pretty common for at least one of the parents to be a match, so they did the cross match and they said I was a match and the next step was to make sure I was healthy,” explained Samaniego.

“I was very excited and kind of relieved that hopefully I could give him this gift. That he will not be connected to a machine in order to survive, but at the same time very nervous because you don’t know how long that kidney will last,” added Samaniego

This Mother’s Day will be a special day as the Samaniego family will be together under one roof, and they say staying positive makes all the difference.”

“We allow ourselves and I allow myself to sometimes just lose it, and cry, scream, be made a everyone and everything. But then I tell myself snap out of it. You can’t live on that moment because it’s going to be a lifetime of this,” said Samaniego.

The CrossFit showdown is at full capacity but people interested in participating in the 5K can still sign up the day of.

For more information on ways to donate and ways to get involved, you can head to http://crossfitimperialvalley.com/elis-heroes/