Kidney transplant patient has Disney World wish fulfilled

Isaiah Molano is your typical 10-year-old.

He enjoys swimming, playing with friends and going to school.

“I like to learn,” he said, enthusiastically adding math is his favorite subject at West Putnam Elementary.

It wasn’t always like this for young Isaiah, though.

The third-grader was diagnosed with renal disease at just one week old and recently underwent a kidney transplant.

“It’s hard enough to raise a kid these days,” Kristy Yorba, Isaiah’s mom, said, “but to have a kid who’s sick is that much harder.”

After a successful operation Dec. 9 at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, Yorba called Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central California.

Isaiah’s wish: to discover first-hand the excitement of Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

“He did really good,” Yorba said. “It’s a lot to see in four days, so you try to hit the major things.”

Isaiah was picked up at 2 a.m. July 2 at his house by limousine and transported to Los Angeles International Airport.

Isaiah, Yorba and her fiance, Josh Selk, and the couple’s son, also named Josh Selk, 3, all flew from L.A. to the theme park.

While there, Isaiah visited Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom and Sea World, just to name a few.

The youngster said his favorite part was eating at Joe’s Crab Shack.

“It was good,” he said.

Every child who’s granted a wish through the foundation is given $50 to spend.

With his money, Isaiah purchased a T-shirt detailed with several Disney World characters, a Transformer toy and a multi-color light wand.

“It gives them hope,” Make-A-Wish volunteer Belinda Contreras said. “It gives them a lot of happiness.”

The family returned home July 8 and relived their many memories Friday.

“It was a chance for him to get out and let these kids know there’s more to life than just doctors all the time,” Yorba said.

Isaiah has battled adversity his entire life.

Just seven days after he was born, Yorba knew something wasn’t right.

“You could move him, you could shake him, you could make noise and his eyes would kind of just roll back,” she said.

Yorba rushed her son to the emergency room and, after a series of tests, Isaiah was determined to be suffering from kidney disease.

“It was hard,” she said, “and it was hard on [my other children].”

Isaiah began dialysis when he was 3 and continued the medical procedure for a couple of years.

He was taken off and put back on dialysis several times leading up to his operation.

Yorba took Isaiah to Fresno for a regular doctor’s appointment Dec. 6.

At first, the news didn’t look promising.

“He had lost weight,” Yorba said, “so they hospitalized him and tried to figure out what was going on.”

The awful feelings of uncertainty quickly evaporated on the second day of Isaiah’s stay at Children’s Hospital Central California when a nurse called Yorba out of her son’s room.

“She was like, ‘One of the nurses from UCSF is on the phone. They have a kidney for him.’ I just started crying because we’d waited for a long time,” Yorba said.

The persistent and loving mother left Children’s Hospital that night with Isaiah at her side.

The two arrived in San Francisco at 3 a.m. Dec. 9, and by 10 a.m., Isaiah was undergoing his long-awaited surgery.

Because he had appointments three times a week, Isaiah remained in the San Francisco area for about one month after his operation.

But young Isaiah’s home now, more vigorous and alive than ever.

“It takes a toll on everybody,” Yorba said, “but in the end, it’s the best thing that’s happened.”

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