GOOD TIMES
“I’m grateful
that Finn has
helped me have
a place to live,
make friends and
enjoy my life,”
says Damien, who
couldn’t wait to
start swimming
again after his
transplant. Adds
Lanning: “It’s
the simple things
we enjoy doing
together.”was around 7 or 8 and wound up in foster care
after his mother lost her parental rights because
she was unable to manage his medical needs. (They
still see each other every few months.) Bounced
from home to home, Damien also spent months
at a time living in hospitals because of his illness.
“He was getting passed around to different people
who offered different levels of care,” says Lanning,
“with long periods in-between of literally living
alone in a hospital because there was no place else
for him to go. He’d have a nurse who took care of
his health, and that was his life. I’m surprised he
managed as well as he did.”
Still, Lanning admits that fostering Damiencame with challenges—including intensive train-
ing on how to administer the boy’s daily 12-hour
dialysis. “I was shocked when I discovered what
I was actually going to have to be doing. It’s a lot
scarier and riskier than I thought,” says Lanning,
who made sure to provide for the rest of Damien’s
needs as well—from buying the right kind of
toothpaste and socks to scheduling his doctors’
appointments. “I’d really thought a lot about this
decision,” he adds. “I didn’t want to be another
person in a long line who’d made a commitment
to him and then couldn’t keep it. I wanted him to
trust me and feel comfortable.”
Within two months,
following a battery of
medical tests and inter-
views with doctors to
confirm his eligibility,
Damien was placed back
on the transplant list—
and on June 14, 2019,
he underwent the four-
hour procedure. Unfor-
tunately the transplant
exacerbated his FSGS
(which has now been in
remission since Septem-
ber), leading to more
than two months of inva-
sive treatments, includ-
ing chemotherapy and
plasmapheresis, a process that removes plasma
from the blood. Damien, now 13, has made a full
recovery, but due to the FSGS he’ll likely have to
face another kidney transplant later in life. “If he’s
extremely lucky, his kidney might last 25 years, so
he’ll be back in this situation at some point,” says
Lanning. “But his recovery has been good, and he
has no major medical restrictions.”
In August, Damien went back to school, where