When last we visited the Daves family of Ooltewah, back in May, they were hoping for a happy ending.
The youngest of Kevin and Jada Daves’ five children, 2-year-old Shafer, has a rare, life-threatening condition called Denys-Drash syndrome, which attacks the kidneys and often leads to cancer.
In June, Ms. Daves donated a kidney to Shafer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. As an organ donor, she was a perfect match, a turn of events so mathematically improbable that it has befuddled medical experts and attracted national media attention.
Today, Ms. Daves has recovered from the surgery and is trying to ease back into her career as a professional speaker. Shafer, meanwhile, seems to be tolerating the transplanted kidney, although he must take liquid through tubes every two hours to keep the adult organ healthy.
CNN and USA Today, among other national media outlets, have told the Daveses’ story, which one writer dubbed, “The mother who gives life to a son for the second time.”