Last April, eight-year-old Brayden Auten was a very healthy boy. He actually was the first kid his age from his hometown of Wrightsville Wisconsin to go to the state finals in wrestling. His mother Ruth says "he started feeling sick and was getting worse so fast that we took him to the hospital.
Within a week, young Brayden was fighting for his life.
"It was the Sunday after we got there, they finally looked at us, they're like, 'We're bypassing everything. He's going on the list tonight.
"When they started talking liver transplant, we just bawled our eyes out. We didn't think it was going to get that far"
His parents shared his story on Facebook in hopes of finding a donor for their son.
Friends and family members started getting tested to see if they would match. Sadly no one did. However an ICU nurse at the hospital heard about the families plight so she got tested. Cami Loritz. was a perfect match and very happy to donate a portion of her liver to save Braden’s life. Now the little boy is back at home with his family, just months after his family wasn’t sure he was going to make it.
Ruth says "we were out of options and praying to God for a miracle and He sent one in the form of Cami"!
The family is incredibly grateful to Loritz and Braden and his personal hero even showed off their surgery scars in a photo shoot. “Thank you Cami Loritz,” Braden’s father,James, says. “I will never be able to repay the gift you have given my son and all of us.”