We found out that we were pregnant with a ultrasound tech, just like, "There's two babies."

And we went back for the full anatomy scan.

That's when we found out that something was wrong with Matthew.

[sound of heart beating] It's actually quite rare.

It's a very, very difficult birth defect to deal with.

And the farther we went along in the pregnancy, it would be more and more unlikely that he would survive.

Matthew's kidneys had failed.

The only chance he had at life was to hope that we can find a donor kidney to replace the kidneys that he has.

He was requiring dialysis, at some point he'll end up getting complications that will eventually lead to death.

The only chance he had at life was a kidney transplant.

[dramatic hopeful music] [dramatic hopeful music] [female narrator] The Castleberrys always wanted a big family.

They have four daughters but always wanted five children.

It's never quiet, and when it is, it's too boring.

We just wanted a big family.

We, we already had four girls at the time, so we found out that we were pregnant.

Um, that was supposed to be our fifth.

And our goal was to have five.

The Castleberrys were hoping that their fifth child would be their first boy.

I was eleven weeks and I looked like I was like five months pregnant already.

I was huge, and people would laugh, and "Oh, you're having twins."

And I was like, "No, I'm not having twins.

No way."

And we went to the doctor's office, and at eight weeks he did the ultrasound.

"Only one baby.

Only saw one."

She was like, "Okay.

This one, looks healthy.

About eight weeks.

Good to go."

We went back at fourteen weeks, and I remember the ultrasound tech was, she was looking, and she's like "There's two."

And I was like, "Two of what?"

"Two arms, two legs."

"No, there's two babies."

So, my husband and I were like, "What?"

So we were hoping that it may be twin boys, you know, and God will bless us with boys finally.

And the first one, she said, was a girl.

So we were like "Oh, we're gonna have twin girls."

[laughter] And then she said, "A boy."

And, my husband was, I mean he yelled [laughter] in the office.

Jumping up and down.

I was crying, you know.

Finally we have our boy.

And then uh, two weeks later we went back for the full anatomy scan.

That's when we found out that something was wrong with Matthew.

[male voice] Definitely we did see a problem; obviously had no fluid around the baby.

And it's critical for babies to have fluids for their lungs to develop.

The problem was quickly identified as, there is an obstruction of urine outflow.

Baby Matthew was diagnosed with posterior urethral valves , where an extra piece of tissue blocks the urine from coming out.

This causes back pressure into the kidneys.

The Castleberrys were immediately sent to a local specialist in Palm Springs, California.

And that specialist literally opened the file, closed it up, and referred us to Loma Linda.

It's actually quite rare, and, it's a very, very difficult birth defect to deal with.

Left alone, because there's no urine that escapes from the baby, all the fluid accumulates internally and, thus, the lungs never develop.

Secondly, the kidneys never develop fully.

And the farther we went along in the pregnancy, it would be more and more unlikely that he would survive.

[music] They said, "Don't expect him to survive the pregnancy."

I mean, what do you do when they tell you that your baby's gonna die?

I think my faith just kicked into gear and, and my husband, too.

We held hands, and we prayed, and that was the day that I remember, I walked out of the office, and I remember just standing there, looking at all those stories of the babies, and their little pictures of when they were born and sick and, and then the big pictures of them being healthy and grown and.

And, I remember I, I, I kind of stopped, and I was staring and, and, I looked at the doctors.

I looked at them, and I said, "My babies will be up here.

They're gonna be miracles.

Just like all these babies here."

[narrator] Because Matthew's kidneys aren't working, he has very little amniotic fluid, but his lungs need the fluid in order to develop.

[Angelina] I researched everything about posterior urethral valves.

I researched about kidney reflux and kidney disease and dialysis, and it was at that time where I even, I learned that they have surgeries in utero.

I had no idea.

I just didn't know that that was even possible.

[narrator] Because Matthew was a twin, there's a chance his sister, Kalea, may be able to help him survive to birth.

[Dr. Oshiro] I wasn't very hopeful, but, Mrs. Castleberry advocated strongly and urged me to do something.

I said, "We have to do something.

We have to try."

[narrator] Doctors came up with an option to do an in utero surgery.

If successful, the surgery would allow Matthew's lungs to develop.

It would also put his twin sister, Kalea, at risk.

[Dr. Lavery] You would actually put in a catheter that would continuously drain the bladder into the amniotic fluid to relieve the pressure, but at the same time create an opening between Kalea and Matthew's amniotic sac so they could share fluid.

It was risky.

And it's not standard of care, by any means, in that there is a high likelihood of a failure.

At, at that time they had a, a doctors' meeting, when they go over all the high profile cases, and Matthew and Kalea's case was brought up.

The first part is usually the factual presentation, you know.

Doctors are very, you know, facts oriented, and then it usually takes a turn.

And then we realize the gravity of the situation, choosing between two very difficult decisions: one, to keep going the way things are and know that Matthew probably won't live, or, go for the procedure in which they both get a chance to help each other.

But we struggled with that because of the age that the babies were then.

We risked pre-term birth.

Then, most likely Matthew would not have survived, and Kalea, uh, would have been in a neonatal intensive care unit for a very long time.

So you were essentially jeopardizing Kalea's life to save Matthew's.

And was that fair to her?

Especially since we weren't sure we could save it.

We really struggled with that decision.

[Angelina] He said it was very risky, it was very scary.

It's, you know, it's, it's a big deal.

I said, "Well, if he passes in utero, what happens to her?"

And they said, "Well, most likely we'll lose her, too."

I was exhausted.

You know, just, it was, everything was just so against us.

If you just hold on to that little piece of faith, you just, you keep going.

We hoped.

And so, that's what I did.

Hope.

There's a lot of emotion.

There is... sometimes anger, frustration.

Why can't we do something?

I don't think there is a single word that I can think of that would describe that.

It's a very roller-coaster feel to it.

But at the end there has to be a consensus.

And we finally decided that, we thought that it was worth the risk to Kalea to give Matthew a chance.

[Angelina] So we got a call Friday, early morning.

It was the nurse's office, and she said, "The doctors have decided to go forward with the surgery."

And it was the greatest news I can ever hear.

Ha ha.

'Cause it felt like such a huge victory.

They believe with us.

You know, they're gonna try to save him.

This is his last resort.

This was it.

[narrator] Angelina, baby Kalea, and baby Matthew undergo surgery.

This is Matthew's only chance to survive.

[Dr. Oshiro] At the very time that we place, everything is silent.

It's a very calm environment because we absolutely have to have strict concentration on what we're doing.

You know, we can't be distracted by anything.

[Dr. Lavery] Mother underwent the operation and they cuts slits in the two sacs, and then they shared the fluid, and then we crossed our fingers and prayed and hoped they'd stay in there long enough.

And I remember thinking, "Okay.

All right.

Lord, You're giving me a son.

Thank you.

But I ask one last thing, Lord.

Let me see him.

Just let me see my son.

Just let me see what he looks like."

[narrator] Whenever an operation is done in utero, there's a risk for an early delivery, especially in twins.

If Angelina has an early delivery, Matthew may not have enough time for his lungs to develop, and he may not survive past birth.

They stayed well, in my belly, and they grew, and his lungs got a chance to grow, and at thirty-one weeks I went into labor.

It was an emergency C-section, and the next thing I know, I woke up and, I just started yelling.

"Are they alive?

Are they alive?

Are they alive?"

And my mom ran in.

She was like, "They're alive.

He's alive.

They're alive."

It was a dream come true to see him.

You know?

Kalea was doing great, but for him, every day was like, if he makes it through this day.

The tenth day, I walked in to the room and, his breathing machine and the ventilator and everything, all his machines were over here, and his bed was right there.

And I freaked out, 'cause why is he not connected to all his machines?

I, and, the instant, I mean, instantly I thought the worst and I fell to my knees.

And they're like, "No, no, no, no, no, no!

He's okay.

He's breathing.

He's on his, he's breathing on his own.

He's doing great.

He's really wonderful.

He's awake!"

And I just cried.

I couldn't help myself, I just cried.

He had a blanket up to his hands, and he was just, big brown eyes, just looking around like, "Where am I?

Who are you?"

It was an incredible time.

The whole, the whole NICU stay was just an entire miracle in itself.

We had nine surgeries, about four or five times they told us that he would not survive the night.

The doctors would come in in the morning and, I was holding him, and I'd be like, "He's still here."

After five months in the NICU, Matthew was finally able to go home.

His mother resigned as a deputy for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department to care for him.

For Matthew, because the kidneys were formed poorly, the only chance he had at life was, once he comes out of, out of his mother, that's to do perinatal dialysis and do the function of the kidneys until he gets to be of sufficient size, and then hope that we can find a donor kidney to replace the kidneys that he has.

'Cause they won't work for his entire life.

[baby music] [chuckling] [narrator] As Matthew grows older, he's almost like any other boy, crawling for the first time and taking his first steps.

But through it all, he is on dialysis until he grows big enough to be put on the kidney transplant waiting list.

[chuckling] Matthew is now three years old.

From the outside, he seems like any other kid.

[Mom] He's so full of life.

[Dad] He's goofy.

[Mom] Goofy?

Yeah, he is, he's very goofy.

[Dad] [laughing] He likes to be a pest to his sisters.

[Mom][giggling] 'Cause he's the only boy.

People see him, they're like, "I can't believe what he goes through."

[narrator] Over these last three years, the hospital has become a second home for Angelina and Matthew.

[Angelina] You know, I spend so much of my time at that hospital, with Matthew.

I often felt neglectful of my other girls.

I had to learn, when you're at the hospital, you're at the hospital.

You don't worry about the kids at home.

You don't worry about home.

You do what you need to do at the hospital.

When you're at home, and Matthew's at the hospital, you concentrate on the kids at home.

You spend all the time with them.

You spoil them.

You have fun with them.

Laugh.

I had to learn to separate the two, hospital and home.

[narrator] Four days a week, Matthew and his mom make the hour-and-a-half drive to the closest children's hospital for dialysis.

Dialysis purifies Matthew's blood, doing the job a healthy kidney would do.

It's what keeps Matthew alive.

Usually I wake up about four o'clock, um, pack up his bags, his formula.

I gotta make his formula, gotta get all his um, stuff ready, and we get here about six-thirty.

[male voice] One can't be on dialysis for, for too long, and at some point he'll end up getting complications that will eventually lead to death.

[Angelina] Sometimes his catheter line will stop working, and that's happened to Matthew already.

This year alone, he's had two, um, operations just to fix that.

It's scary, 'cause that's his only lifeline, and, his catheters have stopped working.

And he's gone into emergency surgery, and it's, it's frightening to think about what could happen if he never got that kidney.

He, he would nee--he needs a kidney to survive.

[narrator] Matthew's parents begin having blood drives, looking for a living kidney donor.

Without a kidney transplant, he will not survive.

The average wait time for a kidney transplant in Southern California is around eight to ten years.

There are approximately 100,000 people on the kidney waiting list.

In 2017, there were close to 17,000 kidney transplants, so that's the gap.

A former coworker of Angelina, Deputy Alicia Lopez, kept up to date about Matthew through Facebook and by visiting him in the hospital.

He's always hugging me, he's always, you know, smiling at me.

I just, kind of fell in love with him and, I thought, "He needs help."

So I'm going to try to help him.

I went and got tested.

I had the appointment in the morning, and by five-thirty I found out I was a cross match.

It was mid-afternoon and uh, I remember I was chasing Kalea and I was like, "Kalea, come here," and then she called, and I remember I was in one of the bedrooms.

And, I asked her if she was sitting down.

I was like, "I have twins.

I'm never sitting down."

Ha ha ha.

And I said, "Well they, I just got word from the hospital that I'm a cross match for Matthew.

They said it's good, and I'll be able to donate to him."

And I remember I fell, like, I just, Ie--, I went down to the ground and I laid down.

I was on the carpet.

And she said, "Well, are you going to?"

And I said, "Well, yes.

Why would I even try, you know, and not go through with it."

So, I told her that I was and she just kept saying, "Okay.

Okay."

It's just, I instantly started crying and, just thanking God.

Like, wow!

Wow!

You know, it's, it's, that's just what it is.

It's just wow.

The thought of this kid not having a healthy life, um, and I have the opportunity to help him.

It was an easy choice.

He's three, but we knew before he was even born what was going on, so we, it's been over three years we've been waiting for this.

[music] [narrator] If everything goes well, today may be the last time Matthew has dialysis.

His kidney transplant surgery is scheduled to take place in a few days.

But every surgery comes with risks.

Anytime we do major surgery, risk of bleeding, risk of infections, you know.

The other thing, too, is just from the kidney transplant standpoint, there's always the chance it may not work.

Mm-hmm.

One of the things that we worry about most, early, like in the first week or so, if there's anything that happens to the blood supply to the kidney, we can lose the kidney.

Okay.

Wow.

But I think the risk is still, in this, in his favor to proceed with the kidney transplant, but I, have to have to realize, I wish I could tell you-- The absolute-- I know.

I know.

--One hundred percent it'll be, oh, but.

It's been a roller coaster, especially the last couple weeks, you know.

But today, hearing the doctor saying that he's, he thinks he's ready to go forward, it's surreal.

'Cause the one thing that they said when we first found out about everything that was wrong with him, was "Well, the only thing, the only way he'll survive really is with a kidney transplant."

So now that we're here, it's like wow.

I'm excited, I'm nervous, and I'm scared, I'm just a ball of emotions.

You know.

Um, it's happening.

Actually happening.

[narrator] It's the morning of the surgery.

Alicia arrives at the hospital first.

Check-in.

Alicia.

Go ahead and take a seat on this side.

I'm starting to get a little nervous, but excited.

Um, just happy and hoping it all goes well.

[narrator] Matthew arrives a few hours later.

I'm just excited.

I'm not nervous.

Um, 'cause we know all of this has been in God's plan forever.

[female voice] They did the blood pressure, right?

[Angelina] I'm trying to just soak in every single second that I have, you know, with him right now.

Just trying to make him laugh, and have a good time and, so he's, he's having a good morning.

He's--we're good, and we're excited.

[Matthew speaking excitedly] [Dr. De Vera] The day starts with the donor surgery.

Once the, the kidney from the donor comes out, then we start Matthew's surgery.

[tense music] [music intensifies] [Dr. De Vera] Matthew had had previous surgeries, and he had had infections in the abdomen, so those things can make the transplant a little bit more, more complicated.

Once we have the kidney, then we connect it to Matthew's blood vessels.

The kidney pinked up nicely.

And that's always a wonder to see, even if I've done thousands of transplants, um, to me, I'm always amazed at how the kidney looks after blood flow is uh, restored in the patient.

[sounds of hospital machine.]

[gentle piano music] [narrator] Both surgeries were successful.

Matthew's new kidney is working.

[gentle piano cont.]

[gentle piano cont.]

[narrator] The next day, both patients are recovering well.

The first person Deputy Lopez wants to see is Matthew.

High five?

Good job.

He did good, huh?

[Alicia] Angelina told me that the kidney was working and that everything was going good, that he was already using the restroom, and, and it was functioning, so, I think I cried a little bit.

[Angelina] It's amazing.

I, I'm still in awe of what she did.

She's amazing.

I, there's no words to, to even say.

He's gonna make it to four and five and six years old and seven years old, and, he'll play baseball.

We'll sign him up for T-ball in two years.

Ha ha ha ha.

Yeah, buddy.

[hopeful music] [narrator] While still recovering from surgery, Matthew and his sister, Kalea, get their photo put up on the wall in the hospital; a day Angelina always believed would come.

[Kalea] My bro-bro.

Oh yeah, your bro-bro.

My bro-bro.

Your bro-bro?

He do.

Yeah?

You like the dress?

We said from the beginning that they were gonna be on the wall, you know.

They said, they, he was, they would never survive.

There was no way, there was no way.

No way.

And, we said that they were gonna make it.

They were gonna be on the wall, and now they are.

It's amazing.

We knew it would happen.

We knew.

[touching piano music] [narrator] It's eleven days after surgery.

Matthew may get discharged from the hospital today.

He's doing good.

Very strong.

He's walking better, he's getting up.

His labs are great.

That feel better?

That feel better?

The labs look good.

We're set for going home today.

The boy, he's done really well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean-- --Amazing.

Give me high five.

Let's high five.

Alright!

You ready, bro?

Yeah, we'll take our picture.

Will be real good, 'cause you look so cute.

Matthew.

Say bye!

Woot woot.

We're leaving.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

It's just, it's so, all this time.

All this time, but it was so worth it.

[music] There were times that I thought, should I let him go, so he doesn't suffer?

This is why.

[sigh of relief] We'll just have to continue to watch his kidney function as he uh, as he grows.

But in general, um, I think his future is bright.

Four years after Matthew's parents were told he would not survive to birth, their story is being shared at a fund-raising gala, to help benefit kids like him in the children's hospital where he was treated.

So, guess what?

We are going to go to a gala, because you guys are miracle babies!

Ah!

Yeah, he ha ha.

Are you excited?

Yes!

Yeah!

I hope that his story and, and his fight to survive um, will give encouragement to other families.

Ah!

Hi.

What I've hoped from the beginning is that we can help give other families hope, and give other families the encouragement that, no matter how hard it is, never give up faith.

And just keep going.

Keep going.

[sound of applause] [triumphant music] [triumphant music] This program was made possible by the Ralph and Carolyn Thompson Charitable Foundation and Ed and Ann Zinke.