White Plains Eighth-Grader in Search of a Kidney Donor

By Bailey Hosfelt

Everything changed for Natalie Ballin, a current eighth-grader at Highlands Middle School and a White Plains resident, in August 2019. 

When the Ballin family returned home from summer vacation, Natalie’s mother, Suzie, noticed bruises and red spots on her daughter’s skin. 

After a trip to the pediatrician, followed by two biopsies at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, Natalie was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia — a rare condition where the body’s bone marrow stops producing enough blood cells. 

“In any one year, there are 600 to 800 cases,” said David Ballin, Natalie’s father. “The odds of getting severe aplastic anemia are two out of one million, so it’s extremely rare.”

In October 2019, Natalie received a bone marrow transplant. Shortly after being discharged from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, she developed a severe case of graft versus host disease, a condition where donor bone marrow or stem cells attack the recipient.

This landed Natalie back in the hospital over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, and although by February 2020 she was able to come back home, she continued to have many ups and downs medically. 

Due to a weakened immune system, Natalie was more susceptible to catching viruses, which led to a whack-a-mole-like situation, David explained. As soon as one complication was dealt with, another would arise. 

“We had a lot of it’s 2 a.m. in the morning, she’s running a fever and we need to rush back to the hospital,” David said. “Meanwhile, her kidney function started to decline.” 

Despite efforts to increase Natalie’s kidney function — ranging from increased water intake to wearing an infusion backpack — she wasn’t getting any stronger. The blood cells in her kidneys, much like a sponge, started to dry up. 

In February 2021, Natalie wound up back in the hospital with a fever, and, when doctors took her pulse oximeter reading, it was 77 and kept dropping. Doctors realized her lungs were filling up with blood, and they couldn’t get it to stop. 

Admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering first then transferred to Weill Cornell, Natalie was put on a ventilator and heavily sedated for over a week. 

“Frankly, it was touch and go there,” David said. 

During this time, nephrologists put Natalie on dialysis, which luckily began to improve the various complications she was experiencing, including her lungs.  

“Her lungs recovered, the inflammation went down and she started getting back her strength,” David explained.

From that point on, Natalie began permanent dialysis, going to two sessions each week in the city.

During each session, which takes three and a half hours, a port on Natalie’s chest is connected to two lines — one that takes blood out, and the other that returns cleaned blood back into her body.

While dialysis is helping Natalie’s health and isn’t painful, it’s not a long-term solution. For that reason, the Ballin family is actively searching for a living kidney donor for Natalie. 

With a kidney transplant, Natalie will regain the ability to do many things she’s lost over the past few years, such as attending school in person, trying out new hobbies like fencing and karate and hanging out with her friends. 

“If I were to find a donor, I would be very excited,” Natalie said. “Next year, I’m starting high school, so it’d be nice to join my peers and experience my teenage years.”

“If I have a kidney by then, I want to do a lot of community service and join clubs and extracurriculars,” Natalie added. “Right now, I spend a lot of time sitting at home.”

Due to her health, Natalie cannot attend school in person. Instead, she goes to the White Plains Public Library every other day, working with two teachers on her schoolwork there. 

The Ballins commended the home-based instruction support in the White Plains City School District, particularly Dr. Natasha Freeman-Mack.

“Both Eastview and Highlands have been very solicitous, caring and accommodating,” David said.

But for Natalie, being apart from her classmates isn’t ideal. 

Currently, Natalie is in an advanced art program at Highlands. Because it meets after school when the building is less crowded and doesn’t conflict with doctor’s appointments, she is able to attend alongside her classmates. 

In June, there will be a showcase of all the student’s artwork, which Natalie is looking forward to.

“Some of my hobbies I’ve been able to expand on [while sick],” Natalie said. “I like to bake and do creative stuff like writing, art and whatever allows me to let my mind roam. But once I get my kidney, it won’t limit me as much.”

For Natalie’s parents, finding a donor would mean the world.

“As a parent, it’s heartbreaking to see what your child goes through,” David said. 

Suzie added that because she has always encouraged her three daughters to take part in extracurriculars, it’s been difficult to see Natalie have to sit on the sidelines. 

“When [Natalie was diagnosed], it was hard to see that she was not able to do a lot of activities she would love,” Suzie said. 

Although it’s difficult for Natalie to think of memories from before her diagnosis, she tries to not let her health condition get her down.

Instead, she’s enjoying the activities she can still experience and finding fun even in a scary setting — whether it’s getting in a pillow fight with a doctor or becoming the hospital’s defacto fashion critic, a position she’s jokingly held for the past two years. 

“The hospital has become my family,” Natalie said. “You just have a bond that not a lot of things can replace.” 

Natalie says the support around her from close friends, guidance counselors, family members and doctors helps keep her grounded and optimistic. 

“After three years, I get a little desensitized because it’s something that’s become my whole life,” Natalie said. “I’m a positive person, but, at the same time, I’m a realist.”

She understands that her kidney function won’t magically get better without a transplant.

That’s why the Ballin family remains focused on finding a kidney donor for Natalie, with a dedicated page on the National Kidney Registry, which helps facilitate living donor transplants.

Because David, Suzie and Natalie’s oldest sister are not matches and Natalie’s other sister is too young, they are hopeful a donor in good health who is over 21 (the minimum age requirement) will step up and be a match. 

With a transplant, Natalie will be able to return to a sense of normalcy for the next two decades — something she hasn’t experienced fully in almost three years. 

“It’s one of those things we have to constantly renew, putting [the registry] back in people’s faces and hoping to find somebody,” David said. 

To learn more about living donation and see if you’re eligible to help, visit Natalie’s page on the National Kidney Registry website: https://nkr.org/QDR266.