In possibly the most Internet story of all time, the now-partially-grown kid known across the Internet as “success kid” has successfully crowdfunded a kidney transplant for his father and managed to inspire us all with hope once again in the process.
Sammy Success Kid Griner is actually now eight years old, and his father, Justin, had gone through full kidney failure in 2009 after a kidney disease diagnosis in 2006. Justin’s mother died from the same disease, and so his family took to GoFundMe to seek a transplant and allow Griner to go back to natural kidney function after years on dialysis.
Sammy’s mom, Laney, told the Daily Dot,
His energy and mood are affected, he can no longer work, and he spends 12 hours a week in dialysis clinic. Having been on dialysis for this long greatly increases his risks of developing further complications. The only way to save his life is to get a transplant. There’s no other way around that.
And the Internet that has reaped infinite joy from Sammy’s expression of pure “**** yeah” returned the favor. The crowdfunding campaign has now topped $95,000, even though its initial goal was $75,000. Sammy’s mother explained that while Medicare will pay for the dialysis and transplant, the post-operation expenses involved in making sure the body doesn’t reject the transplanted organ will be a lifelong burden—or would’ve been without the strong crowdfunding support.
“We’re the parents of ‘Success Kid’ for goodness sake,” said Laney. “If anyone understands the power, the mass, and goodwill of the Internet, it’s those of us lucky to experience it daily.”
They still haven’t found an acceptable donor match yet, but they’ve left a link on the GoFundMe page to see if you’re a match. If you need encouragement to do so, I can pretty much guarantee it’d complete your lifelong goal of feeling as good about yourself as success kid does.
(via BBC News)
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