Diagnosis: Posterior Urethral Valves (PUV)
Age at Diagnosis: Birth
Current Age: 7 months old
Nakai's story, as told by his mother, Holly:
Nakai was born with Posterior Urethral Valves (PUV) which caused his bladder, ureters, and kidneys to become progressively dilated, leading to chronic kidney disease. He had emergency surgery at CHKD when he was six days old to ablate the valves, we were so lucky that CHKD rapidly diagnosed and corrected the issue before he had further damage. The CHKD nursing staff was such an amazing support to us during that week-long stay.
Nakai is now almost 7 months old and is progressing far better than was anticipated at his time of diagnosis. His kidney function remains at 70% in his right kidney and 30% in his left kidney. While both kidneys are still damaged and dilated, they are currently functioning well.
Children with kidney disease have three critical growth periods, birth to age 1, age 2-3, and all of puberty where they are most at risk of renal failure. Nakai will continue to be seen & monitored by the excellent pediatric nephrology and urology physicians at CHKD until he is an adult.
We feel fortunate to have such a great facility in Hampton Roads. We are particularly grateful for Dr. Reem Raafat and Dr. Jyoti Upadhyay for their abundance of time and attention given to our family.
The above link will take you to our CrowdRise site. To donate in honor of Nakai, please write Nakai Shetty or Mile 4 in the comments section of your donation.