PEVELY, Mo. — You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at Michael Loness now that he had to fight to become the strong 5-year-old boy he is today.
"When he was born, he was in complete kidney failure. They estimated only about 80% kidney function is what he had," his mother Sarah Loness of Pevely, Missouri said.
It took 112 days before she could bring her son home.
"We kind of lived life doing dialysis at home and lots of surgeries in between and as you can imagine a baby with a dialysis catheter can pose a lot of interesting situations, so we, unfortunately, had a lot of infections sometimes," Sarah Loness said.
At about 18-months-old, Michael reached the 22-pound requirement to get on the kidney transplant list.
"This was Michael's chance at living a good life," Loness said.
A mother of three donated her kidney to Michael in 2018. Two years after a successful surgery, the pandemic hit.
"Well, now the rest of the world will know what it's like for us, because we had to wear a mask a lot of places, when he would go to the hospital for example. Germs everywhere," Loness said.
She typically avoids taking her son to crowded places, but the masking requirements gave some peace of mind.
"I personally liked sometimes that people would have to wear masks, especially during the height of cold season when everyone's getting sick," Loness said.
With mask mandates lifting, she'll have to navigate through public spaces with extra precaution.
"Michael, yes, is old enough to wear a mask, but there's a lot of immunocompromised children that are not old enough to wear a mask," Loness said.
She hopes people will keep in mind that masks not only protect yourself, but others as well.
"Some people say oh it's just a cold, but to kids like Michael, it's not just always a cold. It could be a hospital stay," Loness said.
Michael is about to turn 6 years old. This is his fourth year of no rejection.