From Ronald McDonald House to his house: Taylum coming home

A toddler born in Sudbury who lived most of his short life at a Ronald MCDonald House will soon receive a kidney transplant that should allow him to live at home.

Taylum Lamoureux was born April 10, 2013 with polycistic kidney disease, which causes large cysts to grow on both his kidneys.

He had to be airlifted to Toronto immediately because his kidneys were on the verge of failing.

Doctors removed one of his kidneys after five weeks, and the second after 10.
Since then, he has needed to go on hemodialysis — a treatment not offered in Sudbury for infants — six days a week.

Since he was brought to Toronto, Taylum has lived at Ronald McDonald House, near the Hospital for Sick Children, with his mother Désirée Lamoureux.

At around 20 months, Taylum had grown enough for his body to accept a kidney transplant, but his family was unable to find a donor. Both his father, Darren, and his mom's best friend applied to be donors, but proved not to be good matches.

Because Taylum's story had gained traction in traditional and social media, Lamoureux said she was contacted recently by a complete stranger who wanted to donate her kidney.

“For somebody who doesn't even know you or your child, to want to donate an organ, it's kind of surreal,” she said. “Within 24 hours of her contacting me, we had given her the green light, and she was already in contact with the hospital.”

On April 17, the family received the news it had been waiting two years for — Taylum was getting a kidney; the woman was a perfect match.

“I was almost in disbelief,” she said. “My husband and I, we cried the whole day.”

If all goes according to schedule, Taylum and his donor should go into surgery May 13.

“Until that day comes, and he's in the OR (operating room), I'm almost afraid to celebrate too much,” Lamoureux said. “As the mother of a sick child, you're always cautious about getting your hopes up. You're always waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Even if his surgery is successful, Taylum will have a difficult journey ahead.

Immediately after, he'll be in the Hospital for Sick Children's intensive care unit for about a week, and will stay in a hospital ward for another week after that.

If all goes well, he'll be visiting the hospital every day for three months, for blood work and check-ups, to make sure his new kidney is functioning properly.

After those three months, if there are no complications, Taylum and his mother will be able to return home to Sudbury. But he will need to return to Toronto every two weeks for more check-ups, over a three- to six-month period.

Eventually, Taylum will need another kidney transplant. Although the record is 40 years, most kidney transplants last about 10 years.

But for now, his mother said she is ecstatic he will receive a life-saving gift.

Ahead of Taylum's surgery, Lamoureux will be selling temporary tattoos to raise funds to purchase an outdoor playset when they return to Sudbury, and to donate funds to Ronald McDonald House.

For more information about the fundraiser, visit Taylum's Facebook page – A Tribe for Taylum (https://www.facebook.com/atribefortaylum?fref=nf).

Lamoureux added she and her family are also strong advocates for organ donations, and encourage people to visit beadonor.ca if they, or even their children, are not yet registered as organ donors.