KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri. Sara Collins emailed KSHB 41 sharing her son's story on dialysis treatment and the way he's giving back now that he's out of the hospital. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail.
Four-year-old Beckham Collins is home for Christmas.
For his whole life, he hasn't spent more than a few days away from Children's Mercy Hospital. Now, with the gift of a new liver and kidney, Beckham has spent nearly three months at home.
Beckham said his favorite part of going home was seeing his brother.
While presents circled the family's tree, bags of toys lined the kitchen. These toys are not for Beckham, but the friends he made while receiving dialysis at Children's Mercy Hospital.
"There’s 22 children that spend the majority of their week on dialysis and that’s our goal, to get every single one of them their top gift on their list," said Sara Collins.
Sara is Beckham's mother.
She knows all too well what it's like spending holidays in the hospital. That's why she wanted to give back.
"I was just so overwhelmed with the generosity, and I was like. you know, when we’re able and when our support system can help us, I want to give back," Sara Collins said.
Beckham was born without functioning kidney's. That led to the four years he spent on dialysis.
"Beckham was born with a condition called autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease," his mother said.
The four-year-old MMA enthusiast has the heart of a fighter and now the other organs to match. That was thanks to an anonymous 16-year-old donor.
Sara Collins said it's hard knowing someone else lost their child to save theirs.
"This Christmas it doesn’t go unnoticed that as we’re celebrating there’s another family mourning, and we can’t tell them thank you enough," said Collins.
While her son's organs came from a deceased donor, the Collins' are advocating for more people to become living donors.
They said the kidney is one of the only organs that can fully function without it's counterpart. This means living donors can give up one of their kidneys for someone who needs it.
The Collins said they're grateful for all donors who give second chances to people.
This chance gave their family a life they couldn't have while Beckham was undergoing his treatments.
Beckham spent 1,704 days getting treatments. That meant countless hours in the hospital hooked to machines.
"They are hooked up to a machine that takes their blood out of their body, cleans it.," said Sara Collins. "Takes the excess fluids and puts the clean blood back in. It does the job your kidney’s should do."
Each treatment lasts from three to six hours.
Beckham's parents said he was often there playing with what he had and watching movies.
The Collins' created Beckham's Buddies as a way to give back to the children in the dialysis unit.
If you would like to support Beckham's Buddies, click here.
