Lethbridge man set to get second life-saving kidney transplant

It’s Christmas for a young Lethbridge man later this month.

That’s what it feels like for Miguel Azzarello, who is set to get a second life-saving kidney transplant. 

But because the 32-year-old father is receiving the gift from a stranger stepping up to offer one of their own, he doesn’t know exactly who to thank. 

Azzarello was born with chronic kidney disease. But he didn’t know that, nor what destruction was happening for years. Unbeknownst to him, one vital organ would eventually shrink to the size of a raisin, and the other would work at just five per cent capacity. 

“I was a very healthy kid,” he says. “In school, I was in sports, doing everything a regular ten or 11-year-old would do.”

That changed unexpectedly and dramatically. 

“One Sunday after church, my dad and I lay on the couch to watch a movie, and he fell asleep and out of nowhere, I had a seizure,” Azzarello says. “My sister woke my dad up, and my parents rushed me to the hospital, and that’s when I found out about my kidney issues. Out of nowhere, my health took a turn.”

He spent his nights during Grade 6 getting dialysis treatment. Twelve hours every night, a machine did what his body could not from 7 p.m until 7 a.m.,  the pre-teen unhooked just in time to go to school.

It kept him alive but hijacked his life.

“I was wiped out most mornings, feeling nauseous, sometimes throwing up before I went to school. It was a roller coaster,” he says.

When he was about 12, his mom, Claudia Viteri, proved a perfect match and gave her son one of her kidneys. 

It worked for more than a dozen years. And then it didn’t. 

Azzarello faced minor rejections, numerous treatments and in 2019, was left with a kidney that no longer functioned. That put him back in a familiar place of desperation and doom and daily dialysis. Eventually, and up until now, he would require treatments every three hours, every day.

Although his gifted kidney gave up, Azzarello managed to endure the gruelling but essential treatments both physically and mentally. 

“As a kid, what always pushed me to keep fighting was my dad. He always told me, ‘God gave me this path out of everyone in my family because I was the strongest one. I was the only one who could be strong enough to fight it,” he says. 

Several years ago, he was told his case was so complicated that he likely would never be a transplant candidate again.

But that changed this year.

Azzarello was put on the transplant list on March 18 and told it would be at least six months before he would get a call. He was also assured that, given he was on dialysis for so many years, he was at the top of the list.

And so, the waiting began. 

But not long after, his doctor called. An anonymous living donor was a match, and, for whatever reason, they were willing to part with one kidney to offer a stranger a new lease on life. Azzarello is still in shock and is so grateful for the gift.

“It totally took me off guard. That was the last thing I was expecting to hear,” Azzarello says. “I expected to be told someone had passed away and a kidney had become available. But someone stepped forward to donate their kidney to someone on the list, and they are a close to perfect match, and I was next in line.”

His mother, Claudia, says it’s an act of love. 

“I’m so happy (someone) decided to give a kidney to my son or anybody,” she says. “I understand it’s not an easy decision because I know if there are any problems, they could be in the same situation as my son.

“In my case, I did this action out of love for my son. For these people, it’s a perfect example of love.”

Azzarello urges anyone who is thinking about being a donor, either leaving the gift of life after they die or being a living donor, to really consider people like him who are waiting.

“There are definitely a lot more people needing organs and not just kidneys,” he says. “And there are not enough people who are willing to step up and donate. If you are healthy and are able to, always give it that second thought because you are saving someone’s life.” 

While he’s anxious about the long road ahead and healing, Azzarello says the best part about getting a transplant is how it will allow him to be “a regular dad” for his eight-year-old daughter. 

“I think six-and-a-half years has been plenty on dialysis, and I think my body could use a break,” he says 

April 7th is Green Shirt Day – a campaign begun by the family of Logan Boulet, a young man killed in the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

Weeks before his death, he registered to be an organ donor and discussed his wishes with friends and family. The 21-year-old’s final wishes went on to save six lives and inspired thousands to become registered organ donors