Father Donates Kidney to Son With Alport Syndrome

Bill Martens still remembers what it felt like walking into his son’s hospital room and hearing the diagnosis: Alport syndrome, a rare genetic disease quietly damaging Blake’s kidneys. Within weeks, Bill made the decision that would change both their lives, donating one of his own kidneys to save his 17-year-old son. Two months after the surgery, Blake was back on the lacrosse field, captain of his senior team, according to CBS News Texas reporting on Blake and Bill Martens’ story.

A sudden diagnosis at seventeen

Blake had grown up with one kidney. Doctors discovered a multicystic dysplastic kidney when he was seven months old, a kidney that never fully developed in the womb, and it was removed by the time he turned one.

“We had that removed when he was one year old. The belief and expectation was that he was fine,” Bill Martens said.

For sixteen years, that was true. Blake played lacrosse starting at age six, and it became the center of his life. Then, at seventeen, his remaining kidney suddenly failed.

“I went into end-stage renal failure. All of a sudden, we didn’t know anything. We didn’t have a diagnosis, so it’s definitely shocking and something I didn’t expect,” Blake said.

Doctors traced the failure to Alport syndrome, a genetic condition that damages the small blood vessels inside the kidneys and can also affect hearing and vision. Blake had inherited it from his mother.

“I remember just simply walking into the hospital room and getting a diagnosis and just feeling absolutely gutted,” Bill said.

A father’s decision

Blake began 12-hour rounds of dialysis while doctors searched for a transplant option. Bill did not wait long to decide what came next.

“I knew the best way I can help is to be the donor,” he said.

Bill donated a kidney at UT Southwestern, and the transplant itself was carried out by the medical team at Children’s Health. For Bill, the surgery left more than a scar.

“I remember feeling a part of me is gone with kidney removed from me. That’s now in my son. It’s amazing. It’s a remarkable experience. You’re saving someone’s life,” he said.

Back on the field

Recovery came fast. Blake was running again within two months, rebuilding the strength dialysis had taken from him.

“I was back running in about two months, rebuilding my core strength. I got to play my entire senior lacrosse season, and they put me as a captain on the team,” Blake said.

He now takes daily medication to keep his body from rejecting his father’s kidney, a small routine next to what came before it. In August, he leaves for Southern Methodist University, where he plans to keep playing the sport that never stopped waiting for him.

“It’s definitely cool that he was able to give me the gift of life, and that’s something that I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life,” Blake said.

Father and son were close before any of this happened. Now their bond runs deeper than memory, carried in a kidney that once belonged to one and now keeps the other alive.