by Jessica Taloney
Published: Fri, June 19, 2009 - 3:49 pm CST
Last Updated: Fri, June 19, 2009 - 6:10 pm CST
Eleven month old Hadyn Brake laughs and smiles just like any other baby, but what's going on inside of her body is anything but ordinary."She's our heart," says Donnell Bass, Hadyn's grandmother. "There's nothing like the love of a child."
Hadyn was diagnosed with a rare congenital kidney defect, and when she was just six months old doctors removed both of her kidneys. For twelve hours every night, her toys are replaced with machines as dialysis treatments do their job keeping her alive.
Few people know what it's like to wait for a transplant, but Harold Allen, an Atmore businessman who until today had never met little Hadyn, does.
Allen received a kidney from his son nine years ago, and today he's paying it forward. Allen doesn't have an organ to give Hadyn, but he does have a check. One-thousand dollars he hopes will cover some of the costs.
"You know I needed to do something to try to help her because I had gotten help myself," said Allen, who first heard about Hadyn's story through an article in the local newspaper. "I want to make sure she gets first class medical care so her family can be around her and stay around her."
Allen wants the check to be a starting point for an account he hopes will grow. The Hadyn Brake Fund is set up at Bank Trust in Brewton.
Doctors want to wait until Hadyn turns one before they start looking for a kidney donor. Hadyn's mom, Amanda Giveans, hopes a family member will be a match.
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