Palm Desert Sheriff's Deputy Donating Kidney To Former Colleague's 3-Year-Old Son

PALM DESERT, CA — A 3-year-old boy in need of a new kidney took a tour of the Palm Desert sheriff's station Tuesday, where his donor, a deputy assigned to the station, showed him the rounds.

Deputy Alicia Lopez of the Palm Desert Station came up as a donor match for young Matthew Castleberry, who was diagnosed in utero with posterior urethral valves. The condition, a developmental abnormality in the urethra, has caused severe damage to the toddler's bladder and kidneys, forced him to undergo numerous operations, and required him to be on dialysis since birth.

Lopez will be donating a kidney to Matthew later this month after surprising the family, including Matthew's mother, Angelina, a former deputy, with her test results, according to the sheriff's department.

The tot and his family took a tour of the sheriff's station Tuesday morning to meet with Lopez and other deputies. Patch was there and caught much of the action live, which you can watch in the embedded footage above.

Here's more on their story, courtesy of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department:

Deputy Alicia Lopez and former Deputy Angelina Castleberry met while working together at the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. While still working, Angelina became pregnant with twins. At 17 weeks into her pregnancy, she learned that one of her twins, Matthew, had been diagnosed with Posterior Urethral Valves, which is the tube that drains urine from the bladder to the outside of the body for elimination. This was causing his bladder to be full of urine and damaging both his bladder and kidneys. During the 23rd week, Matthew had little to almost no amniotic fluid and doctors advised Angelina and her husband Matthew Sr. that little Matthew was not going to survive.

After 2 unsuccessful procedures attempting to drain Matthew's bladder, doctors did not believe any procedure would help because of the risk to his healthy twin sister

At 31 weeks, an emergency c-section was preformed due to placental abruption. Miracle twins, Matthew Cross & Callia Faith Castleberry were born on July 1, 2014. Matthew was born first, weighing 5 lbs, 2oz and his sister Callia weighed 3 lbs, 12 oz. Callia was discharged from the NICU at 8 weeks old. Matthew, on the other hand, still had a long road ahead. He was born with pulmonary hypertension, bleeding in his brain, fluid in his brain, kidney failure, and collapsed lungs. The Castleberry’s were even told that Matthew would not survive, and doctors put together a care plan for him.

At two weeks of age a catheter was placed into Matthew’s abdomen in preparation for dialysis. Till this day, Matthew is still on dialysis. He has had approximately 14 surgeries since birth and has fought through complications with dialysis, which is thankfully now working. The goal was for Matthew to weigh 22 pounds so he could be placed on a kidney transplant list.

Angelina resigned from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department due to her son Matthew requiring around the clock medical care. Deputy Alicia Lopez had remained friends with Angelina and had been keeping up with Matthew's progress. Knowing that little Matthew now needed a kidney transplant, Deputy Lopez, felt compelled to help. Without telling the Castleberrys, Lopez was tested and found out that she was a match!

When the time came for Matthew to be put on the transplant list, the Castleberrys were surprised to know that Angelina’s friend and ex co-worker Alicia Lopez had already tested and was a match to donate her kidney to Matthew. The transplant has already been scheduled.

Please join us as we send our thoughts and prayers to both Matthew and Alicia as they prepare for the transplant surgery. Stay tuned for more on this story.

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Last image via Riverside County Sheriff's Department, All others by Renee Schiavone, Patch / City News Service contributed to this report.