Jacob Cole From Failure to Flourish: A Kidney Transplant Brings Hope Jacob Cole is 15. The high school freshman likes Harry Potter, the Buffalo Bills, concerts, fast food and fancy cars, as in Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Though functionally blind from birth and small for his age, Jacob, at one time, was a middle school wrestler.
A local TV station in the Southern Tier - where Jake lives - profiled him in 7th grade. Jake had made a name for himself when he won his first wrestling match despite his blindness, while actively participating in middle school using his braille typewriter and sharp wit. The reporter called him an inspiration. But by the end of the following summer, Jake started feeling sick. “I just kept getting weaker and weaker. I didn’t want to eat anything, and I started throwing up a lot,” he says. Jake’s mom, Kathleen Teeter, noticed his diminished energy and the flu-like symptoms and took him to the doctor. A few days later, she noticed his legs wobbled as he was getting in to the car. He didn’t seem to get better. She took Jake to the Emergency Room at a local hospital. As he was attached to IVs and blood drawn from his arm for tests, Kathleen noticed that Jake was turning blue. It was hard for Kathleen to understand what was happening. She is deaf and communicating in a crisis can challenging. Her father, Robert Cole, M.D., joined her at the hospital. A retired surgeon, Dr. Cole explained to Kathleen that blood tests showed Jake’s kidneys were shutting down and he would be transferred to Rochester for treatment.
A Desperate Condition When they arrived at Strong Hospital’s Emergency Department, a team of physicians, nurses and sign language interpreters met the family at the door. It was then that Kathleen learned just how serious Jake’s situation was. “He was dying in the ambulance,” Kathleen says now, “The doctors told me he had Stage 5 kidney failure.”
Golisano Children’s Hospital
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