Kingston Comes Home 8-5-22
SCHOLFIELD, Wis. (WJFW) - In 2019, Tommy Wraggs noticed an abnormal bump on his son’s stomach so out of precaution, he took him to a clinic in La Crosse where they were living at the time. "They took a look at him and yeah it seems like it looks like a hernia, but they wanted to look more," said Tommy Wraggs.
After a few x-rays and pictures the La Crosse Clinic decided to transfer Kingston to the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison. There they discovered Kingston actually has a rare kidney disorder called congenital nephrotic syndrome. "It’s a genetic disease where the filtering unit of the kidneys are broken, so they form broken and they’re really leaky the filtering unit is actually leaking all of these materials into the urine that they’re not supposed to," said Neil Palian a Pediatric Nephrologist at UW-Madison.
Kingston had to get both of his kidneys removed because of the disease, and it got to the point where the doctors had to take him off the kidney transplant list. They even asked Tommy to sign a resuscitate order, which meant that if something were to happen to Kingston, the medical staff would not perform lifesaving measures. "I was given notice that if something does go wrong, because it really had a high percentage that he might not make it through that surgery," said Wraggs. "They would bring me down and let me say goodbye to him," he added.
Eventually Kingston improved enough to be put back on the waitlist, and then Tommy received a call that would change his life forever. "Once we got the call that we have a match, we have a consent this is a go," said Tommy. "Basically, your kind of numb because you seem that you know it’s going to happen, but it still feels very unreal until they take him back there to surgery," he said.
Initially, doctors gave Kingston a 3% chance of living I asked Tommy how does he feel about his son beating the odds. "It makes me feel good about him, really good about everything overall," he said.
What were the nurses like to Kingston in the hospital? "The nurses were moms, to Kingston the nurses were amazing I literally feel guilty for taking Kingston away for the nurses," he laughed.
After being in the hospital for two years, it was finally time for Tommy and Kingston to come home an now Tommy is excited for the life can give to Kingston. "Hopefully in the future, maybe next year be able to travel with him. Taking him camping be able to do things with him," said Tommy. While Kingston will need further treatments, Tommy's family started a gofundme page to help pay for expenses.