Dear Friends,
This letter is about my dear friend Alice. It’s her story, and it’s also a request for help. I know not everyone can offer what we need, but please do me and my friend the kindness of reading to the end before deciding.
Alice is a wonderful person. She is a brilliant environmental attorney who has worked as a civil servant for 22 years. Her work focuses on toxic waste cleanup, improving the environment and the health of communities around the country. She is also a devoted friend and mentor of children.
Sadly, Alice has also suffered kidney failure nearly all her life, stemming from a misdiagnosed and mistreated case of strep throat at age seven, which severely damaged her kidneys. From that point forward, her kidneys declined further until at age 18 she was put on dialysis, subjecting her to 18 hours a week of a painful and sometimes debilitating process.
Later that year her mother was able to donate a kidney, which gave Alice 16 years of good health but ultimately wore out; a new kidney from her brother (pictured below, with Alice) has given her the last 17 years. (Her mother and brother are both in excellent health!)
In return for this gift, she has made it her life’s work to help others. She has made a career of improving our environment, and she serves on a board to counsel and educate other kidney patients so they understand their treatment options. Alice has also lived the healthiest lifestyle possible in hopes of prolonging her own life.
Unfortunately, her current kidney is nearing failure. While she lives on a very low and ever-diminishing percent of kidney function, Alice is on a five-year transplant wait list for an organ from a recently-deceased person.
Her current kidney will not last those five years. Without a transplant, she will return to dialysis, which is only 10% as effective as a functioning kidney, leaving many side-effects. It’s also very painful and poses a very high risk of infection (this hospitalized her at 18). As hard as it was for her when she was young, it will be even harder now.
Put simply: Alice needs a new kidney, and we hope you will consider being tested to be a donor.
I know this is a big request. But I make it on behalf of someone who devotes every day of her life to making a difference in the world.
If you can help, please do. If you know anyone who might, please forward this on. Forwarding this to your family, friends, work, school, congregation, or any other communities you belong to would be most gratefully appreciated.
I know many potential donors hesitate to get tested, not knowing what it entails. I want to be as helpful as possible, so I’ve included information about being tested and donating below to answer some questions.
If you need any more information, or would like to be tested, please call the hotline set up for Alice at (301) 717-1755.
You will be put in touch with Living Donor Coordinator at Alice’s transplant center, who will be able to speak to you confidentially and answer any questions.
Thank you so much!
Information About Donating
The initial testing for donation is simple; it usually requires some interviews and a blood test. Costs are covered by Alice’s insurance. The surgery for removing a donated kidney is now laparoscopic, and causes little scarring. It does not require a lengthy hospital stay and the costs of donation are covered. You don’t need to be a perfect match to donate a kidney to Alice. Technology, and advances in matching donors and recipients, now permit any healthy person to donate. And one kidney donation can generate multiple others, potentially helping many people! http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2009/03_11a_09.html <http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2009/03_11a_09.html>
The long term implications of donation were recently the subject of an article in the New England Journal of Medicine which concluded that survival and the risk of kidney failure in carefully screened kidney donors appear to be similar to those in the general population. Most donors who have normal kidney function and “an excellent quality of life.” http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/360/5/459 <http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/360/5/459>
A 2007 article in the New York Times noted that donation is a personally fulfilling experience. In a review of published surveys on donor attitudes by Mary Amanda Dew, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, about 95 percent of donors say they would do it again. Most experience a boost in self-worth and enjoy feelings of deep purpose: “People who actually do become donors, usually regard it as a supremely gratifying experience; they were given a blessed opportunity to save a life.” Sally Satel, Desperately Seeking a Kidney, N.Y. Times, Dec. 16, 2007.
The following web sites provide information about the process of donation, and the benefits of donation to the donors, as well as to the recipients:
http://www.livingdonorsonline.org/ <http://www.livingdonorsonline.org/>
http://www.umm.edu/transplant/kidney/qanda.htm <http://www.umm.edu/transplant/kidney/qanda.htm>
http://www.unos.org/ <http://www.unos.org/>
Thank you again for considering getting tested.
