New organ gives young man new hope

In 2011, Josh Kraut was living in Walla Walla and finishing high school. He was also mentally preparing for the day his kidneys could fail.

Now, 11 years after his diagnosis of Alport syndrome, the Pullman resident is recovering from a second kidney transplant in Seattle and is looking forward to going back to college and living his life again.

Kraut had been diagnosed with a disease which damages the glomeruli, which are tiny filtering units in the kidneys, according to the National Kidney Foundation. It is an inherited disease which is caused by a mutation in the collagen protein. It can affect both hearing and eyesight as well as the kidneys.

The Alport Syndrome Foundation reports there are three different types, all of which are genetic. The most common is called x-linked. The less common types are autosomal recessive and autosomal dominant.

X-linked Alport syndrome, according to the foundation, severely affects males and those with the mutation will always develop kidney failure. Women with the mutation on one x chromosome will have milder symptoms because a non mutated gene will counteract the mutated one. It accounts for 80-85% of cases.

For Josh he has autosomal dominant, which is when one parent has the disease and passes along a mutated gene which carries the disease. This is roughly 5% of all cases of Alport syndrome, according to the Foundation.

Kraut grew up in Pullman and his family moved to Walla Walla in 2006. His mom, Amy Kraut, moved herself and her three other children back to the Palouse in 2011. Josh stayed in Walla Walla to attend college and dialysis appointments.

He started dialysis while he was attending Walla Walla Community College. He met Charlene Hinojosa, who is now his fiancee and has remained with him through both transplants.

Kraut was on the waitlist for a new kidney for nearly six years and received his first transplant in 2016. For reasons outside of his control, it wasn’t successful, so Josh contacted Virginia Mason in Seattle and began the wait again.

Then in early December, Kraut received a call: get to Seattle soon and a kidney is yours. The couple made the trip and were placed in an apartment known as the Transplant House, to use while they are in Seattle.

The couple were able to purchase groceries and household necessities before having car troubles, as described on their GoFundMe page. The fundraising effort was set up by Amy Kraut, who wanted to help her son and his fiancee raise about $6,000 to keep them afloat until they can return home to Pullman.

The GoFundMe page can be found at bit.ly/3i12e4s.

Hinojosa said they expected to return in January as his transplant has been successful so far. When he is feeling better, Kraut plans on attending Spokane Falls Community College in hopes of finishing a computer science degree.

In his free time, Kraut has been learning to knit, cross stitch and crochet, and is also playing video games, but looks forward to being more active. Going to the gym and riding his bike are on the list of things he wants to do when he is cleared from his transplant.

For Amy Kruat, this isn’t the first time a person in her life has been diagnosed with Alport syndrome. Her husband, Richard Kraut, was diagnosed with it in the 1980s and died in 2008 from its complications. Richard grew up in Troy and was a University of Idaho graduate.

In 2013, two days after Amy’s daughter Sarah Kraut graduated from Colfax High School, she started dialysis for the same disease. And in 2017, another Kraut daughter, Bekah, was diagnosed with Alport syndrome.

“It was a huge change in all our lives,” Amy Kraut said.

Both Sarah and Bekah Kraut got transplants in 2021 at hospitals in Texas. Their mother started GoFundMe accounts to help cover some of their expenses. Amy Kraut said she had been working two to three jobs at once to keep them afloat.

With all three of her children with Alport syndrome currently experiencing successful kidney transplants, Amy Kraut is breathing a sign of relief. She is currently in Waco, Texas, with Bekah and Sarah. Sarah is finishing school at Baylor University.

Amy Kraut said once, before the transplants, the Alport Syndrome Foundation had reached out and asked her to talk to another family that had been recently diagnosed, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. At the time, Kraut said she felt she was holding her breath until something good happened.

“You’re just surviving,” Amy said. “I finally feel like I can breathe and look forward.”

More information about Alport syndrome can be found online at alportsyndrome.org.

Nelson can be reached at knelson@dnews.com.