West Haven Dad Seeks New Kidney In Race Against Time

WEST HAVEN, CT — In a race against time, a West Haven man who wasn’t expected to live past the age of 7 is taking his search for a new kidney public, so he can see his “miracle baby” grow up.

Yannick Napier, 35, was born in Jamaica with a rare condition involving his urethral valves and wasn’t expected to live past 7 years old. He was first hospitalized at 5 days old with what was thought to be a urinary tract infection. After spending the first three months of his life in the hospital, and after hundreds of tests, doctors finally diagnosed him with posterior urethral valve disease.

“Once I was diagnosed with posterior urethral valve disease my life became a battle against time,” Napier wrote in a post on GoFundMe.

Napier said his parents became his “superheroes by being proactive in the fight” against the disease. They eventually brought him to the United States for more advanced medical options after kidney failure appeared imminent.

“Upon arrival I was seen by medical professionals who informed my mother that had I been born in the United States this disease would have been prevented,” Napier said. “However, at this time, the damage was so severe the doctors only had one choice; that was to cauterize the urethral valves away. My parents had a tough decision to make due to the fact that this procedure could have prevented me from ever having children… My parents made the decision to go through with the cauterization procedure in order to save my life.”

Napier and his fiancée Katelyn Hickman are now the proud parents of a 6-month-old boy — Marley, according to WTNH News 8.

“We had our miracle boy,” Hickman said to WTNH.

Napier began experiencing symptoms of End Stage Renal Disease in 2005 and received a kidney two years later but his body rejected it. Napier has been in kidney failure for the past eight years and is now in search of a second kidney transplant, which he told WTNH is going to be “beyond a needle in a haystack right now.”

Hickman wrote an emotional post on Facebook about their search for a kidney donor that was shared hundreds of times and even reached New Zealand, according to WTNH.

Napier and Hickman have been running home hemodialysis treatments for the past two and half years.

“We have lost countless hours of sleep and missed out on many things that couples do because of my disease,” Napier wrote on a GoFundMe page that was launched in support of the family. “Being that we have been friends for 16 years, since high school, we both knew the situation we were getting into before taking on the responsibility of performing these treatments in our home.”

The treatments take four hours, four days a week and have become more difficult with an active 6-month-old, especially since they can’t have family members over to help due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I need to be here for my family,” Napier said. “I need to teach my boy how to ride a bike, how to treat a lady, how to shave; all the things a boy should learn from his father. I have been positive and in high spirits throughout my treacherous disease-filled life and have never felt the need to ask for help until now. I love my family and my boy more than life itself and this is why I’m reaching out to finally tell my story and ask for a living kidney donor. A living kidney donation can give me my life back. With a living kidney donor, I would have the pleasure to ensure a lifetime of seeing all of Marley’s firsts and watching him grow into the generous, smart, well-rounded young man his mother and I will raise him to be.

“It is much harder to find a donor for a second transplant, due to the antibodies of my own and the antibodies from the first transplanted kidney that is still inside of me, which continues to leave me unable to work for a much longer period of time.

“Our situation is urgent- high priority! Please, if you have ever considered being an organ donor, call the kidney transplant donation number 1-866-925-3897 and tell them you want to be tested to be a living kidney donor for Yannick Napier.”

More than $3,000 has been raised through the GoFundMe campaign, as of Friday evening. For more information, or to make a donation, visit the GoFundMe page here.

For the full WTNH News 8 report, visit here.

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