Days After Life-Saving Transplant at Stanford Children’s, Young Patriots Fan Will Attend Super Bowl Thanks to Anonymous Donor

A 9-year-old boy who underwent a life-saving kidney transplant at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford simply days in the past has been discharged and is headed to the 2026 Tremendous Bowl this Sunday to cheer on his favourite crew, the Patriots, due to the generosity of an nameless donor.

Douglas “Deuce” Bolkeim from Honolulu, Hawaii, obtained his kidney transplant final week and has been recovering at Packard Youngsters’s Hospital underneath shut medical supervision. Within the days following his surgical procedure, he made a easy want: crew gear to cheer on his favourite NFL crew. He hoped for one thing acquainted—a Patriot’s t-shirt he might put on.

By way of the Little Needs program, which brings pleasure to hospitalized youngsters, Deuce bought his Patriots t-shirt.

“Ever since he was little, he knew I used to be following the Patriots,” Deuce’s father, Douglas, stated. “It got here by means of my thoughts, ‘why don’t you allow them to know we need to go [to the game]?’ However I needed to let him make the want. We have been actually grateful for what he wished for,” Douglas added.

Days after the process and after cautious analysis, Deuce’s medical crew decided that he was recovering effectively and accredited his discharge from the hospital.

Then got here the shock.

Early Friday night, the household obtained sudden information: an nameless donor had gifted Deuce tickets to the 2026 Tremendous Bowl. The benefactors, an area household who select to stay nameless, have a toddler with medical points and wished to present again to the group. The sport, the Nationwide Soccer League’s championship matchup scheduled for Sunday, February 8, 2026, options the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks and shall be performed at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara—the identical metropolitan space the place Deuce has been receiving care.

“We have been very stunned once we bought the information,” Douglas, stated. “It’s most likely the best information we obtained since we bought right here.”

The timing makes the expertise particularly outstanding. Simply days after a significant transplant surgical procedure, Deuce is making ready to attend one of the extensively watched sporting occasions within the nation. His medical crew labored intently with the household to ascertain clear pointers to reduce well being dangers, together with infection-prevention measures and exercise limitations.

The Bolkeim household, now residing in Honolulu, Hawaii, are from the Marshall Islands. There, Deuce’s care crew knowledgeable them that the native hospital lacked the required sources to deal with him. In January 2024, the household found that Deuce was experiencing kidney failure, prompting them to fly to Oahu the place he started dialysis therapy. Towards the tip of 2024, Deuce was positioned on the transplant ready checklist. Only a week in the past, the household obtained the decision notifying them that Deuce was a match for a transplant, main them to reach at Packard Youngsters’s Hospital on Friday, January 30, 2026.

“We’d prefer to share how grateful we’re for the [care team] and all of those that helped in Deuce’s journey,” Douglas stated. “We pray God blesses them abundantly.”

As kickoff approaches, Deuce will attend the Tremendous Bowl not solely as a fan, however as a testomony to the impression of generosity—from the organ donor who made his transplant doable to the nameless particular person who remodeled a small post-surgery want right into a life-changing expertise.

The pediatric kidney transplant team at Lucile Packard Youngsters’s Hospital Stanford is a nationwide transplant quantity chief supporting one of many busiest pediatric kidney transplant facilities in america.

Be taught extra at: Pediatric Kidney Transplant – Stanford Medicine Children’s Health