{"id":148890,"date":"2025-06-01T07:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T07:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/148890\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T07:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T07:30:21","slug":"utah-man-latest-in-family-to-suffer-kidney-failure-from-rare-genetic-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/148890\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah man latest in family to suffer kidney failure from rare genetic condition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ST. GEORGE, Utah (KSL.com<\/a>) \u2014 \u201cJust have faith that everything\u2019s gonna work out. If it doesn\u2019t, then that\u2019s the way that God intended for it to happen, and you\u2019ve just got to trust that his will is greater than our understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what 30-year-old Zakk Coomes says when asked how he feels about what happened last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust have faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cghost\u201d and told him to go home and possibly see a doctor.<\/p>\n

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\u2019d look at it now and then again in 10 to 15 years.<\/p>\n

No clinics could see him that day \u2014 he would need to wait several weeks for an appointment \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

By Thursday, he received the results \u2014 his kidneys were running at near 0%, meaning kidney failure \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about three to four hours every session,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it becomes my part-time job.\u201d<\/p>\n

A family condition <\/p>\n

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, \u201cthe jokes got put aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s brought us a little bit closer together. \u2026 It\u2019s brought the whole family together closer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alport syndrome runs in the family<\/a>. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 grandfather received a kidney from his sister, and Coomes\u2019 mom has undergone three kidney transplants.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Still, he didn\u2019t 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 \u2014 overall losing 30 pounds \u2014 and didn\u2019t realize anything was wrong until he became sick at work last week.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been told he would\u2019ve died within three weeks had he not been checked by a doctor.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing fine. My family\u2019s struggling more than I am. God helps a lot,\u201d Coomes said.<\/p>\n

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 \u201ctrifecta,\u201d which includes color blindness, hearing loss and eye problems.<\/p>\n

Coomes\u2019 mom, Caralee White, says it\u2019s 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 \u2014 but the doctors wouldn\u2019t let her.<\/p>\n

\u201cZakk is one positive person. We call him Smiley Zakk. He just does not let anything get him down. \u2026 He always has such a good attitude about everything. \u2018Just take it as it comes, and you just deal with it.\u2019 This is just something he has to go through, and what else can you do? I just love him, and I know he\u2019ll get through this. It\u2019s gonna be a hard \u2026 until he gets his kidney, hopefully in a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see your own child have to go through this. It\u2019s probably been the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever had to go through, honestly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I know that there\u2019s hope, and there\u2019s so many people praying for him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe<\/a>* has been established to help Coomes with the financial burden as he is unable to work full-time while undergoing dialysis. Coomes\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in becoming a kidney donor can scan the QR code below.<\/p>\n

\"Zakk<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/a><\/p>\n

\t \t \t \t=htmlentities(get_the_title())?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=get_permalink()?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=htmlentities(‘For more stories like this one, be sure to visit https:\/\/www.eastidahonews.com\/ for all of the latest news, community events and more.’)?>&subject=Check%20out%20this%20story%20from%20EastIdahoNews” class=”fa-stack jDialog”> \t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. GEORGE, Utah (KSL.com) \u2014 \u201cJust have faith that everything\u2019s gonna work out. If it doesn\u2019t, then that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-148890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114606940085412586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}