Nellie is a sassy, sweet 7-year-old with 7 older siblings and a love for singing and games. Nellie was diagnosed with Dense Deposit Disease last October. Dense Deposit Disease is a rare kidney disease that stops the kidneys from correctly filtering waste from the blood. Because of this disease Nellie is in chronic kidney failure. For the past seven months Nellie has come to
Primary Children’s Hospital three days a week for dialysis, a four-hour procedure, and every other Friday for an infusion for a blood disorder related to her disease. Nellie doesn’t have the desire to eat and so she is hooked up to a feeding tube during the night that fulfills her nutrition needs. Nellie recently had a procedure that will allow her to have dialysis at home. She will be hooked up to the dialysis machine at night and it will take ten hours to complete the process.
With the help of her nurses, Nellie is currently learning to sleep through this procedure. Nellie’s favorite thing about Primary Children’s Hospital are the nurses! Nellie loves all her nurses and they love her! They always make her feel better if she has a sad moment.
Nellie is also a great advocate and fundraiser for Primary Children’s Hospital. She wanted to help the other kids that she sees at the hospital and has conducted several fundraisers. With a little help from her family Nellie ran a toy drive, during which she ended up collecting 584 toys that she donated to the hospital. Nellie then ran a blood drive. 64 people donated blood which in turn helped 81 people. Nellie also made Mother’s and Father’s Day cards for all the moms, dads, nurses and doctors in her unit. For Easter Nellie made Easter Eggs with a little treat for each doctor and nurse in her unit. Nellie is always looking for new ideas so that she can give back to the people and the hospital that have helped her so much.
Despite the challenges, hours and sometimes tears Nellie spends fighting her disease she remains happy, optimistic and ready to help those around her.
