Great News!!

Walker got a phone call yesterday from the transplant team at Mayo. He has been under evaluation at Mayo since October with a January 21st appointment being his last hurdle before they would meet to decide his fate. The transplant doctors meet every Thursday to discuss new patient opportunities, evaluating them in extraordinary detail seeking to determine if they will be successful recipients of very valuable organs and have the necessary fortitude and determination it takes to sustain a successful transplant.

Since January of 2021, Walkers has done test after test and then test again by the doctors at AdventHealth then the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville evaluating his condition to see if he could be one of their success stories. While it was very hard on Walker and his family to be turned down by the team at AdventHealth in August of 2021, it has made it that much sweeter for Walker to be accepted by the awesome team at the Mayo Clinic of Jacksonville on February 3rd to be a future recipient of a double lung and kidney transplant. 

A life giving phone call. His parents, his family, his community of supporters can all breathe a little easier now knowing Walker will be given this extraordinary opportunity for a second chance at life, a closer to normal life where breathing comes easy and urinating comes naturally. To say we are excited for this next chapter in Walkers story does not do justice to the gravity of the situation. March will mark 3 years that we have been wrapped up in a medical drama that can’t help but be the major focus of our families daily life. We have watched a great decline in Walkers health over the last 12 months making it very clear to all of us that a major transplant was the only way forward for his life, for without it he would continue to slip away. Now we can safely focus on the challenges to come which will happen pretty quickly probably with a surgery within the next 2-4 months we hope. Thank you God in advance for providing an amazing team of doctors and nurses and support staff to perform this surgery and for all your provisions to the needs of his loving family.

We will now move ahead with Godspeed to prepare for the transplant to come, raising the necessary funds to manage the housing, food, travel, and medications is a critical part of this very unique journey. We can add businesses to the list of potential donors as www.givetaxfree.org/Walker  provides a tax deduction for all donations. Thank you so very much to those who have been able to contribute to date and to those who will participate in the near future. Your support has helped to keep our family healthy and happy, preparing to be the lean mean transplant team here soon. We have been very blessed in so many ways. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

God Bless you, The McKnights