Kate also shares a close relationship with Anna, and secretly feels guilty for the ways in which her illness has affected her siblings – for example, Jesse’s dyslexia went unnoticed for years as Kate received all of their parents’ attention, causing his grades to suffer. At age fifteen, Kate goes into kidney failure, requiring 11-year-old Anna to donate one of her kidneys, which will severely impact her quality of life. With Jesse’s help, Anna approaches attorney Campbell Alexander to sue her parents for medical emancipation. The secretly epileptic Campbell sympathizes with Anna’s feeling of not having control over her own body, and takes her case pro bono. Representing Anna as her guardian ad litem, he files a suit for partial termination of parental rights.