Since it was established 38 years ago, Space Camp has made dreams come true for almost 1 million children. One former camper says jokingly that the event might have helped save his life.
When he was 10 years old, Chase Best was diagnosed with Mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis type 2, a rare kidney disease also known as Dense Deposit Disease. And that diagnosis was made while he was undergoing a physical exam to attend Space Camp, an educational event held since 1982 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
That was 26 years ago. Now Best, the superintendent at Polo Fields Golf and Country Club in Louisville, Kentucky, is just weeks away from a kidney transplant that has been years in waiting and that he hopes will add years to his life. And his donor happens to be his Pony League baseball coach from 20-plus years ago.
"I've had (DDD) my whole life. Doctors found it during a physical to go to Space Camp," Best said. "Who knew Space Camp probably saved my life?"
At age 10, Best's kidneys functioned like those of a 50-year-old man. Today, his kidneys function at about 8 percent of normal capacity, leading to fatigue, lethargy and worse, like minimizing the body's ability to cleanse itself of impurities. His condition worsened over time, and he's been on a donor list for the past three years. He's been undergoing dialysis since Jan. 6. Friends started a gofundme page on behalf of the family to help raise money and awareness.
I've had (DDD) my whole life. Doctors found it during a physical to go to Space Camp. Who knew Space Camp probably saved my life?"
"Daily, it just wears me out," Best said. "It is mentally and physically exhausting to have this disease.
"I deal with depression, and there are some days I just want to go into a dark room and curl up in the corner and not deal with anyone."
It was baseball that first connected Best and Jake Yonkers more than 20 years ago, however, the events that have transpired since and have forever linked them are straight from a movie.
Besides being the superintendent at Polo Fields Golf and Country Club, Best also is the assistant boys basketball coach at Corydon Central High School in his hometown of Corydon, Indiana. It was there that he recently reconnected with Yonkers, who owns a commercial lighting sales operation and is an assistant coach on the girls soccer team.
When Yonkers heard his former pitcher needed a new kidney, he was only too willing to start the process to learn whether he was a match and give his ex-player one of his kidneys.
After rounds of interviews and batteries of tests and blood work to determine if Yonkers was a match, both recipient and donor are waiting for a transplant date at Jewish Hospital across the Ohio River in Louisville, hopefully later this month or early April.
"The chances of a former baseball coach being a match for one of his players only happens in a Lifetime movie. This kind of thing doesn't really happen," Yonkers said. "All these steps have to happen. I felt like it was out of my hands. The thing I was most concerned about, because Chase was doing dialysis three times a day, was to find out if I was a match. If I was not a match I just wanted to find out because there were other people behind me waiting to start testing. That was stressful to me. If I was not a match, I just wanted to find out so they can move on to find a match."
More than 10,000 kidney transplants per year are performed in the United States, and the procedure is considered safe for both donor and recipient, according to Dartmouth University, but there is always a risk in any surgical procedure regardless of how common it is.
A father of two - daughters Bella (18) and Hallie (15) - Yonkers said his decision to surrender a kidney is as much for Best's wife and stepsons Gavin (18) and Drew (18) Smith and 10-year-old daughter Brinley as it is for the recipient himself.
"People have told me about the risks, and I know there is no guarantee of life," Yonkers said. "The only guarantee is if Chase doesn't get a kidney, he is going to die. I can't imagine that little girl growing up without a dad. His daughter has to have a father. There is no getting around that."
A Purdue graduate, Best has been a superintendent for 12 years. He interned years ago at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville and still considers Mark Wilson his greatest mentor. A father of three, he has coached boys and girls golf in the past and has been an assistant to coach Joseph Hinton on the boys basketball team for the past seven seasons.
He learned he finally had a donor and that his Good Samaritan was his former Pony League ball coach during a ceremony held at a Corydon Central basketball game on Feb. 28. Video of the announcement went viral and was picked up by local TV and Good Morning America. Both men are scheduled to appear today on ESPN.
People have told me about the risks, and I know there is no guarantee of life. The only guarantee is if Chase doesn't get a kidney, he is going to die. I can't imagine that little girl growing up without a dad. His daughter has to have a father. There is no getting around that."
The event was staged by his wife, who has been active in helping spread the word about her husband's condition and increasing awareness about kidney disease in hopes of finding a donor who is a match.
"She made it her goal to find me a kidney," Best said. "She never let me quit. She helped me tremendously.
"I would never go through this for the attention. But I do want to do what I can to increase awareness about kidney disease and organ donation. The human body is an amazing thing; its parts can continue working even after you are gone."
Although he wants to educate others on the importance of organ donation, Best still has reservations about taking a kidney from a healthy person, whether it is an old friend or a stranger.
"I would never ask someone to do this," he said. "I know it's safe and a donor can live a long, normal life with one kidney, but what if something happens? If something happens down the road, is it my fault? He has a family, too. If something happens did I destroy that family?
"I never realized the support I had in this community."
Although he has mixed feelings about someone else putting themself at risk on his behalf, he is looking forward to the day when he feels better.
"I've missed out on a lot in my life, like my daughter growing up, because I just can't do everything that other people do," he said. "I get mad and I snap a lot. I've pulled my family aside and apologized to them because I just can't be the person I want to be."
