Georgia toddler denied kidney transplant due to father's criminal record

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A Georgia toddler desperately needs a kidney transplant, and his father was deemed the perfect match, but the operation was canceled due to the father's criminal record. Now, the little boy is fighting for his life as his family pleads for help.

A.J. Burgess was born a month early and without a working kidney. Now 2 years old and weighing just 25 pounds, A.J. was set to receive a kidney last month from his father, Anthony Dickerson, who was tested and proved to be a perfect match.

Dickerson was arrested in December 2016 for violating his probation on weapons charges, according to criminal records. He vowed to give A.J. a kidney once he got out, the boy's mother, Carmellia Burgess, told CBS affiliate in Atlanta WGCL-TV.

"He made it his business to say, 'Once I get out, I'm going to promise to my son that he can get a kidney,'" she told WGCL.

Dickerson was released from jail six weeks later and he was scheduled to undergo surgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Oct. 3 to donate his left kidney to his son. But he was arrested on Sept. 28 for violating his parole again for possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies as well as for fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, according to criminal records.

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"It ain't nothing I'm proud of. It's life. Stuff happens. A mistake happens," Dickerson told ABC News in an interview. "I want to give him a kidney. I’d go to the hospital right now and lay down and give him my kidney. But it ain't up to me."

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"Mr. Anthony Dickerson has been approved to donate a kidney to his 2-year-old son who is a patient of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta," the letter states. "The Living Donor Transplant Team at Emory has asked Mr. Dickerson for evidence of compliance from his parole officer for the next three months. We will re-evaluate Mr. Dickerson in January 2018 after receipt of this completed documentation."

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But A.J.'s mother worries January will be too late for her ailing son. The little boy is battling a peritonitis infection and was taken to the emergency room Sunday, according to a GoFundMe page Burgess set up to raise money for A.J.'s medical bills.

"A.J.'s spirit is strong but his body is not," she writes on the crowdfunding website. "Please help. His father is a match."

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