Please Help 22 Year Old Zac Fight Kidney Failure

Update 1/7/2023 - Finally received some GOOD NEWS! The insurance company has come through and approved the rituximab infusion. Unfortunately, rescheduling the infusion has to wait until Monday as the scheduling office is closed. 

Zac will continue hemodialysis three times a week, labs one time a week, weekly visit with a nurse practitioner, and monthly visit with his nephrologist. We are grateful Zac will get his 50/50 chance and are hopeful his kidneys will start to heal. 

There have been so many hurdles thrown at this young man and his family. The words of support and donations toward his mounting medical bills have been a huge help. A big thank you to everyone for your support. 

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Update 1/5/2023 - The insurance company denied Zac’s second rituximab infusion and the infusion center cancelled the infusion because Jen didn’t have $25,000. Jen is appealing the denial with the doctors appealing on their end as well. The appeal process is expected to take a minimum of 72 hours with no guarantee of success. In the meantime we are desperately trying to come up with the money so he doesn’t miss his window of treatment. The doctors said he has to have the infusion within a week for it to be effective. 

We need your help to share this so we can reach more people. We only know a small pool of people. If more people share then that pool has the potential to expand into a pond, a lake, or even an ocean. 

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Update 1/2/2023 - After two weeks of being hospitalized, Zac was discharged late in the day on 1/1/2023. He started outpatient hemodialysis earlier today and will need to do this three times a week for at least 6 weeks. The hemodialysis facility is a 110 minute round trip drive each time so they will be spending almost 2 hours in the car every time he needs hemodialysis (approximately 5 1/2 hours a week). He will also have additional medical appointments to attend. 

We have been able to clarify Zac’s medical insurance situation. They have a $10,000 yearly max out of pocket. He definitely hit that amount in 2022 with three hospitalizations, testing, labs, and medications. They are expecting to reach the $10,000 max out of pocket early in 2023 as well.

We have almost reached the initial $5,000 goal and want to thank everyone who contributed and shared. You have helped to alleviate some of the initial financial stress. However, this is only 25% of their expected out of pocket medical expenses through 2023 so they can still use additional help. I am raising the goal to $10,000 which is 50% of his out of pocket medical costs (not including gas and any time out of work for Jen). He does not currently qualify for any county, state, or federal programs. If the medical insurance situation changes then I will provide an update. 

Please continue to share, pray, send positive energy, and hope with us that Zac will respond to the rituximab infusion he’s getting on 1/5. If he doesn’t respond then he will be diagnosed with end stage renal failure and will be placed on the kidney transplant list. 

Zac had a few exceptional nurses while he was admitted and we would specifically like to thank Sara, Terry, Michelle, and there was a fourth nurse who was great as well but I did not get his name. There were plenty of other staff who were great (environmental services, nutrition, phlebotomy, PCT’s, dialysis team, infusion team, etc.) and night staff who we did not meet. Thank you for caring for Zac during his time there.

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My nephew, Zac, and his mom, Jen, need your help. Zac turns 22 years old on December 28, 2022, and he is currently in the hospital fighting for his life.

In 2016, when Zac was 16 years old, he played varsity football and was the quarterback at his high school in Idaho. Zac called his mom, Jen, after he returned from the team’s summer football camp. He was complaining because his body was swollen, he felt nauseous, his legs hurt, and overall didn’t feel well. Jen was at work and just thought he had just overdone it at camp and he needed some rest. She told him to drink some Gatorade and get some rest.

When she got home from work and saw him, she realized he was seriously ill and immediately took him to the ER. The local hospital took labs which only confirmed that he needed to be transferred to St. Luke’s Children's Hospital in Boise, ID where he was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome. He was stabilized and sent home on serious medications that caused him to be immunocompromised.

On his first day of school, he used the water fountain and picked up a food poisoning bacteria which caused him to become septic within 12 hours of leaving school. He was rushed to the ER where they immediately determined he needed to be transported to Boise but he wasn’t stable enough to go. They had to insert a central PICC line but couldn’t numb him because his blood pressure was too low. He felt the entire insertion process and it was extremely painful. However, he was stabilized enough to transport him to Boise. He was touch and go for a while but was eventually stabilized. He has been in and out of the hospital ever since.

In 2018, they moved to Dayton, Ohio to be closer to a specialist who could care for him.

Zac and his mom had been telling his nephrologist since November 28th that Zac felt like his kidneys were failing but the doctor wouldn’t listen. Zac was vomiting and his body was retaining fluid which are key signs of kidney failure. Against his doctor's comments and advice, Jen took him to the ER on December 3rd where he was hospitalized for 4 days. He was released once his kidney function showed improvement. He continued to feel ill and his mom continued to contact the doctor stating they felt his kidneys were failing again. His doctor felt he was stable and advised he would see him on Friday, December 16th for a follow-up appointment. During that appointment, his doctor told him that he was medically stable and he wanted to see him again in a month.

Jen disagreed with the doctor’s assessment and demanded the doctor at least run more labs. The doctor gave in and submitted a new lab order. The normal range of Kidney Glomerular Filtration rate (GFR) for men is 100 to 130 ml/min. When Zac’s GFR results came back at 19 (only 3 days later), Jen rushed Zac back to the ER. They immediately started him back on high-dose steroids but his GFR dropped down to 12. The hospital had to start him on dialysis.

Currently, the dialysis is temporary but they had to insert a catheter into his jugular vein. This was extremely painful and traumatic for Zac. They couldn’t give him anything other than a local anesthesia. He wasn’t allowed to have anti-anxiety or pain medication because he needed to be alert enough to sign medical documents to get the catheter inserted and again to receive dialysis. Normally, they give the patient time to recover between the catheter insertion and dialysis but Zac was rushed immediately to dialysis.

Zac’s current GFR (12/24/2022) is 13 AFTER two dialysis treatments and one rituximab infusion. We are hoping the infusion will help to kick start his kidneys but his GFR went from 15 to 13 overnight without dialysis. Unfortunately, he will be getting dialysis every other day for at least two weeks. On January 5, 2023, he will be getting a second rituximab infusion. If the infusion doesn’t work then he will have to be put on permanent dialysis and might then be eligible to be added to the kidney transplant list.

This is the third time Zac has been hospitalized since just March of this year. He has been too sick to work so he has been financially dependent on his mom. The medications, dialysis, infusions, and hospital stays have made things difficult. Because he lives with his mom, he isn't eligible for any assistance through county, state, or federal programs. They could use your help to offset some of his medical bills. Jen already has thousands of dollars in medical bills (and still hasn't received the bill from his hospitalization 2 weeks ago). If the dialysis has to continue then it will be financially devastating to them. To put it into perspective: a dialysis treatment typically costs $500 or more. If he has to get dialysis just three times a week then that would cost $1,500 a week or $78,000 a year. If he has to continue dialysis every other day then the yearly cost will be $91,250.

Jen does have medical insurance for Zac but it won’t cover the entire cost, nor does it cover any time Jen has to take away from work. There will also be the new expense of having to drive him to and from the dialysis center every other day. Any help will be gratefully appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this. We will put periodic updates on this page to show his progress.