Patient, 5, Recovering Well After Historic Transplant

Four patients are reunited at Children’s Hospital after the first U.S.-paired kidney transplant involving a child.

A paired transplant pairs donors and recipients who aren’t matches on their own. In the paired kidney transplant that took place last week, 5-year-old Bennett Huibregtse got a kidney from a relative of Jenny Neely of Canonsburg. Bennett's father gave a kidney to Neely.

"I was in and out of the hospital. I almost lost hope for a while,"said Neely.

“It’s been amazing,” said Kristin Huibregtse, mother of the 5-year-old kidney transplant recipient. “Someone we don’t even know was able to step up and give this gift to our son.”

All four transplant patients are recovering well after the operations.