By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

A seventh-grade student at Clanton Middle is in need of a kidney donor, following a sudden illness in January.

Arque, better known as Elijah, Warren was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis on Jan. 5.

“His body went into septic shock, which caused his kidneys to shut down … He was on a ventilator for 11 days,” his mom Crystal Warren said.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital told the family “they had done all that they could do,” Crystal Warren said.

“The Good Lord wasn’t through with him,” Crystal Warren said. “He came home from the hospital on Jan. 27.”

When Elijah Warren left the hospital, the doctors said there was a 90 percent chance that his kidneys would begin functioning again on their own.

“They say your kidneys are the first organ to shut down if you are really sick,” Crystal Warren said. “They go to sleep to protect themselves.”

In March, an ultrasound revealed Elijah’s kidneys had shrunk to 50 percent of their normal size. Crystal Warren said this is when he was diagnosed as having chronic kidney failure.

Initially, doctors wanted Elijah to go six months without a pancreatitis issue before placing him on the national organ waiting list.

Because of some issues with Elijah’s dialysis lines staying in, he was put on the list sooner.

The family is using every means they can think of to locate a living donor. Crystal said the family is hoping to find a living donor because the kidney would last longer.

The donor must have B (positive or negative) or O (positive or negative) blood in order to be a donor for Elijah.

Potential donors can visit uabmedicine.org/kidneytransplant. They would need to designate Arque as the person for which they want to be a donor. UAB Organ Center would then use a tissue sample to determine if the person is match.

If the person is a match, the organ center will contact them to ensure that they are still willing to be a donor and proceed from there.

Finding an organ donation for a child on the national waiting list typically takes at least a year. Crystal said if a living donor is found, then it will speed up the process.

Despite attending dialysis three times a week in Birmingham, Elijah Warren is still trying to keep up with his school work on Tuesdays and Thursdays by staying afterschool.

Last school year, Elijah was homebound from January to April and a teacher came to the family’s home to teach him.

Crystal Warren said one of the hardest things for Elijah has been not being able to play football.

His Little League Football team, Clanton Blue, recently retired his jersey.

For more information on being a donor, contact Crystal at 205-299-2325.