DENVER (KDVR) — It was in 2019 when FOX31 told you about 10-year-old Davasia Goens. She was in need of a kidney, and thanks to viewers like you, her life was saved.

Unfortunately, Goens is back on dialysis three times a week at Children’s Hospital Colorado after that kidney transplant was rejected in April.

“It’s absolutely horrible. She really struggles with the dialysis and the side effects of it,” her mother, Melanie Goens, said. “From chest pains, there were months where she could only eat one meal a day, and it is such a difficult situation to be standing on the outside watching and there’s nothing I can do to help her.”

On Nov. 8, Goens’ kidney transplant was removed. She has what doctors used to call Wegener’s, now known as granulomatosis with polyangiitis, or GPA — a rare disease that attacks the organs. It’s what caused her first rejection.

That condition is currently staying at bay, but the fear for her mother is still there.

“A lot of sleepless nights, because I don’t know that I’m going to wake up and find her in good condition or that it hasn’t gotten any worse,” Melanie Goens said.

Organ, blood donors can help children in need

And while it’s hard enough now being a teenager and in high school, the illness is affecting her confidence and self-image.

“I struggle just looking at myself, and I wear a tank top a lot and so just seeing my port, and everything — that’s a lot, and it’s hard to see myself and feel pretty,” Davasia Goens said.

Her older sister, Justyce, is sticking by her then and now.

“It’s all a shocking process to see it all change, from one minute, we’re celebrating coming three years with a great kidney to now back on dialysis. But my biggest hope is that for her 15th birthday would just be her kidney so that she can enjoy her birthday,” she said.

While the family wants answers and that needed kidney for Davasia, they also want to raise awareness that she is one of many children going through dialysis and kidney failure. You can get tested to be a donor, or just to give blood or plasma, to help children like her.