Micah Lambert and his dad, Brandon, are preparing to compete in the 2026 Transplant Games of America on June 18 to 24.
The games are known to be the largest gathering of living donors and recipients in one place and will be held in Denver, Colorado, this year. They only hold the games every two years. Although Micah and his dad were given the opportunity to participate at the last games held in 2024, it was just too soon after he had his kidney transplant in 2023.
Micah is extremely excited to be able to participate in the games this year with his dad, who is his living donor.
“My son is super excited because he had to give up baseball for a little while after his transplant, and he was so devastated,” explained Micah’s mother, Candace Lambert. “Sports wise, he hasn’t been able to do much because of being in and out of the hospital constantly. This gives him a chance to be a kid and experience things he’s had to miss out on from being at the hospital all the time and in recovery and things like that. They’ll have games like cornhole, swimming, pickleball, golf, basketball, and stuff like that. They do have a 5K Run Walk one day that’s for donor recipients and their families. All six of us are going to do the 5K, so there will be that family wise. My husband and Micah are going to be the main ones competing though since my husband is the living donor. There are different divisions. Division one is recipients, so all recipients are paired with other recipients to play games. They can get to know other recipients and learn their stories. They’ll actually have a ceremony there and will have a bunch of things like team building exercises.”
They will be part of around 100 or more donors and recipients from Mississippi to represent Mississippi in the games this year.
The family is currently trying to raise funds to take care of all the costs associated with the trip and living expenses during the games. Their goal is to raise at least $2,500. In order to assist them in raising funds, Mississippi Transplant Kids – Team Mississippi created a give butter donation page that people can use to give. Anyone who would like to donate can either give on the donation page at https://givebutter.com/WnKsdd/team-mississippi-1/candacelambert or can send money to a cashapp created specifically for Micah at $micahstrong23.
Micah is really looking forward to being able to participate in the games and be able to experience a little normalcy. For those who don’t know Micah’s transplant story, his mom was able to provide the following information:
“Micah started having ‘episodes’ when he was just nine months old. He was misdiagnosed for three years before we found out what was wrong. He was wetting through diapers every single night and couldn’t control his urine output. He began having episodes of vomiting uncontrollably and would become lethargic to the point we couldn’t get him to wake up.
After many ER visits, ambulance rides, and even a helicopter flight to a children’s hospital, we finally got the answers we needed. At age three, we got a definitive diagnosis. Micah’s overall diagnosis is stage 4 kidney failure with Chronic Kidney Disease, or CKD for short. He has bilateral renal hypoplasia, which means his kidneys are significantly smaller than they should be. He was diagnosed with bilateral hydronephrosis, which means there is an overabundance of fluid in his kidneys and urinary tract, and he also had grade 5 severe bilateral vesicoureteral reflux, which means his urine was backing up into his kidneys.
He had a bilateral ureteral re-implantment surgery to fix the reflux in August 2018 at the age of four. When they went in, it was more severe than they expected. He had to have a stent due to the severity of the dilation of one of his ureters. He had the stent removed September 2018. He also suffered from a hernia in his groin after his two surgeries, which required a third surgery for a hernia repair October 2019.
His overall kidney function was not at 23 percent, and he was struggling to stay hydrated every day because this condition itself made him dehydrated. We were told that he would more than likely need a transplant by the time he turned 10.
Fast forward to 2023, Micah at age nine started to rapidly decline, and they chose to start peritoneal dialysis. In May 2023, they placed his catheter for dialysis. However, in late May his catheter flipped inside his abdomen and became very painful, so he underwent another surgery to have it fixed. Later in June 2023, his catheter flipped a second time, and they decided to place it on the opposite side, so he underwent another surgery for catheter placement. In July 2023, his catheter malfunctioned, and doctors decided that they would monitor him closely over the next month or so due to the extent his body had gone through over just a few months with the multiple surgeries back to back and also the fact that his dad was being worked up to be a living donor. He underwent another surgery to have the catheter removed.
On September 23, Micah’s dad, Brandon, gave him the gift of life through organ transplant. Now, Micah is doing much better; although, we still face obstacles from day to day, his overall outlook on life is so much brighter. We are so thankful that Micah’s dad was a perfect match. Organ transplant saved our son’s life!”
Help Micah and his family raise the funds they need to go and participate in the Transplant Games of America this June!
