‘There are others who have it worse:’ Honesdale family seeks kidney transplant for 10-year-old son
Jake Algerio, 10, of Honesdale, enjoys time at Honesdale Central Park in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. His mother, Brianne Algerio, a certified ʼһ assistant at The Wright Center for Community ʼһ Hawley Practice in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, desperately seeks a new kidney for the Lakeside School fourth-grader in the Wayne Highlands School District. To help Jake, visit the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) website at https://tinyurl.com/fkdea2yf or call 1-877-ORGAN50 (674-2650)
With his best friend in close pursuit, Jake Algerio dashed around the picnic table where his mother, Brianne, sat.
Nearby, a giant tic-tac-toe game beckoned from the playground equipment, prompting the Lakeside School fourth-graders to momentarily abandon their chase for a quick round.
Their laughter echoed as they raced towards one of Honesdale Central Park’s slides, their smiles radiant with the pure joy of childhood.
Tears welled as Algerio watched her son.
“I’m so grateful I didn’t listen to the doctors,” says the certified ʼһ assistant at The Wright Center for Community ʼһ Hawley Practice in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. “They gave him two months to live. We’re at 10 years.”
A warrior in a battle he never chose, Jake remains resilient in the face of relentless ʼһ challenges.
His kidneys — one, a mere centimeter long or a little smaller than the length of an aspirin tablet; the other just a half-centimeter — leave him reliant on nightly peritoneal dialysis, and in desperate need of a new kidney.
A catheter nestled in his belly facilitates the five-hour dialysis while he sleeps, filtering out toxins within his body from the lining of his abdomen wall. It’s a far cry from the average-sized kidneys of a child his age, measuring around 9.42 centimeters.
Hospitalizations, infections, surgeries, and the disappointment of a failed kidney transplant five years ago — each setback testifies to his unwavering strength, every trial woven into the fabric of his everyday life.
“There are others who have it worse,” he reassures his mother, his spirit unbroken despite the darkness that surrounds him.
Jake Algerio, 10, a fourth-grader at the Lakeside School in the Wayne Highlands School District, enjoys the playground equipment at Honesdale Center Park in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Jake must protect the catheter nestled in his abdomen that facilitates his nightly, five-hour peritoneal dialysis.
To extend solace to those he encounters who are struggling, Jake often lifts his shirt to reveal the tube in his abdomen, sharing words of encouragement born from his own journey.
Last week, on April 16, Jake’s name was reactivated on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) national transplant waiting list — joining more than 104,000 people, including 2,100-plus children, in need of a donor, according to Donate Life America.
Algerio and her husband, Don Sweeley Jr., crafted a flier outlining the donor qualifications for their son: an individual with either A+ or O+ blood type, who is physically fit, in good overall health, with no significant ʼһ issues, and has not undergone major abdominal surgery. To help Jake, visit the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) website at or call 1-877-ORGAN50 (674-2650).
“He’s doing his part, I’m doing my part,” says Algerio, 45, of Honesdale.
Algerio’s colleagues at The Wright Center are also rallying behind Jake’s cause, sharing the flier and his story to help find him a compatible match.
“Jake is scared for the transplant,” shares Algerio, who began working at The Wright Center about four years ago, both in its Scranton and Clarks Summit practices. “I tell him, ‘We’re trying to get you a better one.’”
Jake’s ʼһ journey began before birth, as a serious bladder obstruction threatened his life in utero. After weighing options, Algerio, 20 weeks pregnant, underwent a minimally invasive surgery to insert bladder shunts — catheters inserted through her abdomen and into Jake’s bladder — allowing vital urine drainage.
Brianne Algerio and her husband, Don Sweeley Jr., both of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, made a flier outlining the kidney donor qualifications for their 10-year-old son, Jake.
However, complications persisted. At 32 weeks, Jake inadvertently dislodged one of the shunts, necessitating a second surgery to replace it. Two weeks later, a blockage developed, leading to Jake’s premature arrival on Sept. 21, 2013, at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest. He spent the following two months in its neonatal intensive care unit. With no means for his bladder to naturally drain, surgeons created a temporary path for his urine to empty.
Predictions of kidney problems proved sadly accurate.
By age 2, Jake required peritoneal dialysis. And at just 4 years old, a kidney transplant became a necessity in 2017, when one kidney ceased growing, barely functioning at 11% of normal capacity.
Then, as now, Algerio urgently appealed for a kidney donor on social media and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Jake continued to confront escalating health hurdles, leading to prolonged hospital stays, including treatments aimed at addressing his dangerously low hemoglobin levels. As these challenges mounted, his family faced significant financial strain, often forced to make difficult decisions like forgoing essential medications and cutting back on meals to accommodate Jake’s dietary restrictions.
Eventually, Jake’s name was added to UNOS’ deceased donor registry. After about six months on the organ transplant waiting list, just ahead of his sixth birthday in September 2019, Jake underwent his initial kidney transplant at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania.
However, complications arose, leading to the removal of the kidney shortly thereafter. Despite his frail state, Jake marked his sixth birthday from a hospital bed, opening his cards and presents, and celebrating at the birthday party organized by his nurses.
Jake eventually recovered, rebuilding his strength. On Dec. 7, 2022, he was reactivated on the UNOS donor registry. But, more hospitalizations and setbacks emerged, including infections and an aggressive lesion that required surgery, causing his name to be deactivated on the registry.
Now at CHOP and reactivated on the registry, Algerio prays for that better match.
“For his age, he’s so restricted,” she says. “He just gets so tired. … I have to remind him to try not to get bumped in the belly and get any contusions. We’ve been through that before.”
Little League and traditional sports might be off-limits for Jake, but his true passion — and a welcome escape from the 11 daily medications and frequent ʼһ appointments — is gaming.
Alongside his virtual adventures with Fortnite, Call of Duty, and more on his PlayStation 4, he embraces activities typical for 10-year-olds, from creating gaming YouTube videos, and playing with friends or his older brother, Ryan, 17, to teasing his two younger sisters, Zoey, 6, and Emma, 3, and cuddling his beloved dogs, Bell and Tony Baloney.
Despite facing extensive health challenges, Jake remained dedicated to his schoolwork, refusing to fall behind a grade, and even teaching himself cursive.
Although Spiderman stickers adorn his bedroom door, when it comes to superheroes, Batman reigns supreme in Jake’s heart — though his mom holds the top spot.
Soft-spoken, he shares the one thing he looks forward to most after receiving a new kidney: “Being with my mom forever.”
The last full week of April is National Pediatric Transplant Week, spotlighting efforts to end the pediatric transplant waiting list. Last year, more than 1,900 children received life-saving transplants, matched from nearly 900 pediatric organ donors, according to . To register to donate, visit , or for more information, visit . Just one person’s decision to donate can potentially save up to eight lives, and positively affect up to 75 more
