Maya's Miracles

Who is Maya?

Maya was born April 11, 2001 to two wonderful parents, Brett and Megan, and a big sister, Aneka. At six months of age Maya was taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital after her diaper had tea-colored urine in it. Doctors worked extremely hard to find out the reason why her body was destroying her blood cells and the broken blood cells clogging her kidneys.

A month after being admitted, Maya went to the pediatric intensive care unit and endured several surgeries to keep her alive. At the age of three Maya had a permanent tracheotomy placed due to severe sleep apnea. She had to learn to breathe and speak again through her trache. Today, Maya undergoes dialysis about eleven hours a day and still has a feeding tube to help with food and medicines. Her diet is very limited. Daily life for her family revolves around Maya’s medical needs at home and at the hospital. While there is nothing that can rid Maya’s life of her daily medical routine, her family works very hard to give her “normal” life experiences. Gratefully, through all of her medical problems Maya has remained a brave, sweet, happy little girl who melts the hearts of everyone around her.

What is Maya’s Miracles?

Maya’s Miracles is a small group of volunteers that provides resources and support for families with chronically or critically ill children. Our goal is to raise awareness about children with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and create a fun, relaxed environment for raising funds.

The money raised by Maya's Miracles does not go to Maya or her family. It goes through the National Kidney Foundation to a local destination. We have raised money for Camp ChiMer for the past several years, but Maya is still too young to attend the camp (the starting age is 9 at Camp ChiMer and Maya is 7). The Zarger family picked Camp ChiMer because it provides a week of "normal" life for both the child with kidney disease and the family. It is the one week that parents do not have to watch the clock for the next medication time or get home in time to start dialysis or other medical procedures. Everybody gets a break from the schedule. Although there may be only one child in a family that is diagnosed with kidney disease, all of the family members are impacted by it. That is how Camp ChiMer won our hearts and is the recipient of the money raised by Maya’s Miracles thus far.

Megan once told her aunt that no matter how bad things look for her or how difficult times get, there is always some other patient or parent at Children's Mercy Hospital who has it worse - either in circumstance or support. Megan wanted to give back to the group that supports these families, and hers, no matter what. Children's Mercy Hospital provides unending support and commitment for the families of children with chronic kidney disease.