Toddler who got kidney transplant after delay is going home

ATLANTA – A toddler who received a kidney transplant last week, nearly two months after the operation was controversially delayed, gets to go home.

Mawuli Davis, a lawyer for A.J. Burgess’ parents, said in an email Friday that the boy was being released from the hospital.

A.J., who will be 3 in January, was born without kidneys. He had been scheduled to get a kidney from his father, Anthony Dickerson, on Oct. 3.

But the family was surprised when Emory University Hospital said they would have to wait until Dickerson, who’s had a number of run-ins with the law, could show he’d complied with the conditions of his parole for three months.

Last week a kidney from a dead donor became available, and A.J. had a successful transplant operation on Nov. 22.