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SANDY — Ashton Arndt, a student at Alta High School, likes to run, especially long distances and cross-country.
At a recent event, the 15-year-old sophomore demonstrated his skill, winning 19 medals in track and field, cycling and volleyball. The boy owes his ability to compete to his mother, though, who donated her liver to him when he was just an infant. Theirs was the first parent-to-child organ transplant in Utah.
When Ashton was 6-weeks-old in 1997, he was Jaundiced and not gaining weight, as his liver declined and surgery didn't help.
"We knew what that meant: That he would need a liver transplant before he was a year old or he would not survive," said his mother, JoLayna Arndt.
JoLayna was a donor match and donated part of her liver.
Now 15 years later, Ashton still has a major scar, and he takes medication daily, but he can do all he wants, including compete.
"I get so emotional, because I'm so grateful that he's here, so grateful that he's so healthy," JoLayna Arndt said.
His medals are from the Transplant Games, an event that is open to anyone who has received a lifesaving organ transplant.
"They wouldn't be there if it wasn't for somebody that donated one of their organs," said Ashton's father, Bryan Arndt. "...Tears don't come to my eyes when I see Ashton compete, but that time they did. I got a little emotional."
Ashton plans to continue competing and keep winning medals.
