ST. GEORGE, Utah (KSL.com) — “Just have faith that everything’s gonna work out. If it doesn’t, then that’s the way that God intended for it to happen, and you’ve just got to trust that his will is greater than our understanding.”
That’s what 30-year-old Zakk Coomes says when asked how he feels about what happened last week.
“Just have faith.”
Coomes went to work after skipping breakfast on May 20. He felt dizzy and sick and sat down in the break room. His boss at Zions Bank came in and checked on him, noticed he looked like a “ghost” and told him to go home and possibly see a doctor.
Because kidney failure runs in his family, he decided to get blood work done to check things out. Kidney failure typically affects men ages 40 to 45, he said, he thought he’d look at it now and then again in 10 to 15 years.
No clinics could see him that day — he would need to wait several weeks for an appointment — but his mom recognized the signs of kidney failure, like the muscle cramps, itchy skin and dizziness, and called a doctor she used to work with for an appointment that day.
By Thursday, he received the results — his kidneys were running at near 0%, meaning kidney failure — and he needed to go to the emergency room, immediately, Coomes recalled. He went into emergency surgery to have a port placed for dialysis that began the next day. He now receives dialysis every other day.
“It’s about three to four hours every session,” he said. “So it becomes my part-time job.”
A family condition
As kids, Coomes and his two brothers would tease each other and joke about their kidneys, as their extended family all suffers from or is at risk of a genetic disease. But now that the brothers are experiencing it, and younger than expected, “the jokes got put aside.”
“I think it’s brought us a little bit closer together. … It’s brought the whole family together closer,” he said.
Alport syndrome runs in the family. It’s caused by mutations to collagen that can cause kidney disease or failure, as well as hearing and eye problems, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents have either donated kidneys to each other, if their own kidneys were strong enough, or received said donations. Coomes’ grandfather received a kidney from his sister, and Coomes’ mom has undergone three kidney transplants.
His older brother, Josh, was born with one kidney and has been waiting on the transplant list for two years, but is not undergoing dialysis, as his kidney is operating at 16%, Coomes said.
Still, he didn’t notice any rapid changes in his health and said they came gradually as he continued to participate in outdoor activities he loves, like camping, riding side-by-sides, boating and traveling with his family. He lost weight slowly over the past two years and then gained it back slowly — overall losing 30 pounds — and didn’t realize anything was wrong until he became sick at work last week.
He’s been told he would’ve died within three weeks had he not been checked by a doctor.
Now, he’s deciding what his work schedule will look like as he continues dialysis and how it affects his body while he works to get put on the kidney transplant waiting list. In the meantime, his family is hoping and praying for a live donor, as it can take up to six months to get on the list.
“I’m doing fine. My family’s struggling more than I am. God helps a lot,” Coomes said.
Relatives who had been screened to donate a kidney were unable to do so due to the genetic condition. The condition is so common in extended families that they refer to symptoms as the “trifecta,” which includes color blindness, hearing loss and eye problems.
Coomes’ mom, Caralee White, says it’s incredibly painful seeing her son go through what she experienced. She said she would give her sons her kidney if it meant going on dialysis every day for the rest of her life — but the doctors wouldn’t let her.
“Zakk is one positive person. We call him Smiley Zakk. He just does not let anything get him down. … He always has such a good attitude about everything. ‘Just take it as it comes, and you just deal with it.’ This is just something he has to go through, and what else can you do? I just love him, and I know he’ll get through this. It’s gonna be a hard … until he gets his kidney, hopefully in a few months.”
“It’s hard to see your own child have to go through this. It’s probably been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through, honestly,” she said.
“But I know that there’s hope, and there’s so many people praying for him right now.”
A GoFundMe* has been established to help Coomes with the financial burden as he is unable to work full-time while undergoing dialysis. Coomes’ employer created an account for anyone interested in donating to his medical fund. Anyone interested in donating can visit a Zions Bank branch and reference account number ***7230.
Anyone interested in becoming a kidney donor can scan the QR code below.
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