FINN LANNING
A teacher’s gift
“It’s really incredible how far Damien has come”
— FINN LANNING
WHEN FINN LANNING LEARNT THAT 12-YEAR-OLD DAMIEN NEEDED A LIFE-SAVING TRANSPLANT, HE OPENED HIS HEART AND HIS HOME
It was an unexpectedly emotional moment for maths and science teacher Finn Lanning – who still remembers when Damien, then one of his seventhgrade students, told him why he wouldn’t be returning to AXL Academy in Aurora, Colorado, following the school’s Thanksgiving break in November 2018. “He was one of the few new students,” recalls Lanning. “He was studious and smart and funny, and he was in a couple of my elective classes as well, so we’d gotten to know each other a little bit.” But that afternoon, the then-12-year-old revealed that he had focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), an autoimmune disease that had seriously damaged his kidneys. To make matters more complicated, Damien had also been in foster care for the past four years. “It was hard to find placement because he was sick,” says Lanning, 37. “He told me he had to leave the foster home he was living in and was moving into the hospital because they didn’t have another place for him. I remember kind of sitting there with him and not really knowing what to say.”
But deep down, Lanning, who is single, knew what he wanted to do. He began visiting Damien at Denver’s Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center – where, because his disease had shut down his kidneys, Damien was on dialysis 12 hours a day. Lanning also learnt that the teen desperately needed a kidney transplant but had been taken off the waiting list because he lacked a stable home environment where his health and recovery could be monitored. “I had no experience being a parent, but I couldn’t look away,” says Lanning, who qualified to foster Damien in March 2019 – making way for the teen’s successful transplant that June. “Just seeing him living in a really full way makes some of this crazy mess feel really worth it – for both of us.” Adds Damien: “It changed my perspective on the world. Now I can do anything.”
That wasn’t the case for much of Damien’s early childhood. He began showing FSGS symptoms, such as swelling and difficulty walking, when he was around 7 or 8 and wound up in foster care after his mother lost her parental rights because she was unable to manage his medical needs. (They still see each other every few months.) Bounced from home to home, Damien also spent months at a time living in hospitals because of his illness. “He was getting passed around to different people who offered different levels of care,” says Lanning, “with long periods in between of literally living alone in a hospital because there was no place else for him to go. He’d have a nurse who took care of his health, and that was his life. I’m surprised he managed as well as he did.”
Still, Lanning admits fostering Damien came with challenges – including training on how to administer the boy’s daily 12-hour dialysis. “I was shocked when I discovered what I was actually going to have to be doing. It’s a lot scarier and riskier than I thought,” says Lanning, who made sure to provide for the rest of Damien’s needs as well – from buying the right kind of toothpaste and socks to scheduling his doctors’ appointments. “I’d really thought a lot about this decision,” he adds. “I didn’t want to be another person in a long line who’d made a commitment to him and then couldn’t keep it. I wanted him to trust me and feel comfortable.”
Within two months, following tests and
interviews with doctors to confirm his eligibility, Damien was put back on the transplant list, and on June 14, 2019, he underwent the four-hour procedure. Unfortunately, the transplant exacerbated his FSGS (which has now been in remission since September), leading to more than two months of invasive treatments, such as chemotherapy and plasmapheresis – a process that removes plasma from the blood. Damien, now 13, has made a full recovery, but due to the FSGS he’ll likely face another kidney transplant later in life. “If he’s extremely lucky, his kidney might last 25 years,” says Lanning. “But his recovery has been good, and he has no major medical restrictions.”
In August, Damien went back to school, and things are great at home – Lanning is in the process of adopting Damien. “I never thought I would end up being a father,” he says. “I feel very lucky.” After homework and chores, the two like cooking together, and on weekends they go to the movies or the arcade. “You kind of lose hope after a while when you’re living in the hospital,” admits Damien. Adds Lanning: “It’s super-cool to reflect on how different things are and to see him be able to just enjoy things regular kids get to enjoy. I never expected this to be my life, but I’m
so happy it is. We’re in it together.”