{"id":115143,"date":"2015-01-20T20:04:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T03:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boy-in-need-of-kidney\/"},"modified":"2015-01-20T20:04:55","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T03:04:55","slug":"boy-in-need-of-kidney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boy-in-need-of-kidney\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy in need of kidney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Hayden
Hayden Kocourek and Adrian Hernandez (front) pose with Daniel Christiansen, Andrew Plunkett, Brandon Hood-Farley, Fidel Avalos, Jayden Peacock, Nigel Henry and Ro Paschal (back). The team has come together to help raise funds for Kocourek's medical bills.<\/span>Sam Green\/Mancos Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos resident Jennifer Zeutzius is counting on the new year bringing better health, something her family didn\u2019t see in 2014.<\/p>\n

Zeutzius said the year came to an end when her 15-year-old son, Hayden Kocourek, was diagnosed with kidney failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been taking him to the doctor because his ankles were hurting,\u201d Zeutzius said. \u201cThe doctor called me on Dec. 7 and said I needed to take him to the hospital right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out that because of his kidney failure, Hayden had developed a metabolic bone disease that was pulling all the calcium out of his bones, his mother said.<\/p>\n

Hayden is an identical twin. And like most identical twins, he and his brother were born a bit early, at 32 weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a bit of a kidney problem when he was born,\u201d his mom said.<\/p>\n

Hayden spent most of December in the Denver Children\u2019s Hospital with Stage Five renal disease.<\/p>\n

The sudden realization that one of their own was ill sent Mancos into action. Jars popped up all over town, seeking donations for the medical expenses associated with disease. A Go Fund Me site popped us as well, yielding donations of $6,800.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very appreciative. We have a great community,\u201d Zeutzius said.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the only challenge the family faced last year. Over the summer, Zeutzius was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. She works as a nurse.<\/p>\n

Today, Hayden is attending school again, although he can\u2019t play sports. He goes through eight hours of dialysis every night, something Zeutzius is able to do at home because she is a nurse.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s taking lots of medications, Zeutzius said.<\/p>\n

His family was thrilled that Hayden got to spend Christmas at home and started attending school again at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was there goal, is that he could spend Christmas at home,\u201d Zeutzius said.<\/p>\n

Zeutzius said that her son has to get a transplant, and can get a transplant from anyone with blood Type O, positive or negative.<\/p>\n

Hunter, Hayden\u2019s twin, asked the doctor if he could give his kidney to his brother, but Zeutzius said that they don\u2019t let anyone donated until they are 18 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is doing a lot better now,\u201d Zeutzius said. \u201cI think he is feeling a lot better. Hayden is very appreciative and thankful for all the support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

How to help<\/h4>\n

www.gofundme.com\/ilvl34
\n www.facebook.com\/playforhayden<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

thankful year of health problems is behind them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-115143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115143"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=115143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}