ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – KTTC’s April Kid With Courage is back home after a major procedure in Rochester earlier this year.
15-year-old Aiden Blackburn chuckled, recalling what he packed in his bag when he got the phone call that changed everything.
“The stupidest stuff, I swear,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking at all.”
Aiden’s mom, Ashley Enrico, said the family’s bags that had been packed for months didn’t make it into the car when the good news came.
“He was upstairs playing games in his room and [I] told him we got the call, and he said, ‘What call?’ And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? The call we’ve been waiting on for five years?’” Ashley said.
Before Aiden was even born, doctors knew he had little to no function in his right kidney.
Right away after birth, he needed medications.
When he turned eight or nine years old, things took a turn.
“He was sleeping a lot more,” Ashely said. “He stopped eating as much. He really started to lose weight, just had no interest in food.”
Locally in Indiana, Ashley didn’t have much luck determining what to do next.
Aiden started online school due to exhaustion.
Online research led Ashley to making a call to Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
“They said could you be here next week?” Ashley recalled.
Doctors put him on the transplant list in October 2019 to find him a new kidney.
That’s when Ashley’s “mama bear” personality really came out.
“I felt so desperate, and I was just, I felt so defeated,” she said. “We had the banner on the car.”
Ashley had her car professionally wrapped inquiring about a donor. She also made online posts and even printed cards on her professional cookie orders to find Aiden a match.
Aiden and his family waited for years traveling frequently between home and Rochester.
“He’s had to be brave for so long, and he shows it in everything he does,” Ashely said.
Then, they got the call that doctors had accepted a kidney for Aiden from a deceased donor.
“Just surprised, I guess,” Aiden said. “Denial a little bit.”
Aiden underwent his transplant in February of this year.
“He did great, and he had a very positive attitude about life and about everything else,” said Mayo Clinic Transplant Surgeon Dr. Mikel Prieto.
Dr. Prieto also spoke about Aiden’s family’s persistence through the process.
“She [Ashley] is like his guardian angel, and it’s great to see him thrive and do so well after the surgery,” Dr. Prieto said.
Aiden told KTTC he is excited to return to life outside and feel good for the first time in a long time.
“I thought about maybe working out a little bit,” he said.
Dr. Prieto said he hopes Aiden’s story can help inspire others to consider the gift of organ donation. You can learn more about that here.
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