James Auten/Facebook/GoFundMeAn eight-year-old boy was on the waiting list for a life-saving liver transplant. After weeks, and weeks, someone stepped up – it was a nurse.
Brayden Auten was admitted to Milwaukee Children’s Hospital, in Wisconsin, with liver failure on April 26 this year.
In May, Grace Van Den Heuvel – Brayden’s auntie and organiser of his GoFundMe page – wrote that his condition was ‘considered to be stable, but slowly deteriorating’.
Brayden’s parents, Ruth and James Auten, said they ‘bawled their eyes out’ when they found out that their son needed a partial liver transplant.
As reported by the New York Post, Ruth said: ‘We didn’t think it was going to get that far.’
Despite being flooded with responses after posting online looking for a donor, the Autens couldn’t find a match.
Happy birthday Brayden!! It sure it a special one! It’s one we almost didn’t have and I’m forever thankful for these moments! I will never take these for granted again!
Posted by James Auten on Monday, July 1, 2019
James told the New York Post: ‘We’re waiting there and just watching him get sicker. It was tough.’
But then, ‘we had the miracle, Cami shows up,’ James added.
On May 19, a post on the GoFundMe page read: ‘Today we want to thank the anonymous donor who shared their liver with Brayden. We are thankful for the sacrifice you made so Brayden has a chance to live and to share his love with others.’
It wasn’t until just over a week later than Brayden met his hero.
Brayden got to meet his miracle today!!! Thank you Cami Loritz for coming to visit him!! And thank you again for…
Posted by James Auten on Thursday, May 30, 2019
‘What she did was completely selfless and she saved his life, plain and simple,’ Ruth said.
On the Facebook post, James wrote:
Brayden got to meet his miracle today!!! Thank you Cami Loritz for coming to visit him!! And thank you again for saving his life and giving up so much time and enduring pain just to give us our little boy. You are truly an angel!
In June, Brayden was moved to the Ronald McDonald House, ‘where he [could] easily attend his many future appointments at Children’s Hospital over the next two weeks.’
It’s been a while!
Posted by James Auten on Saturday, August 24, 2019
In July, he was finally released from hospital and returned home – he’s now gearing up to head back to school.
One selfless act saved a life – from all of us at UNILAD, good luck at school Brayden.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.