Transplant Athlete Blog

Transplant Athlete

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Powerful "ER" tonight. Every patient's worst fear. You've just broken in the new kidney, its barely out of the warranty and BAM! Acute Renal Failure. Did you see the pain in the parent's eyes. WOW. Then the father goes all "John Q" in an effort to keep his daughter off of dialysis. The episode was pretty powerful and I don't want to detract from that, but here's my two thoughts on the situation:
1) At the Transplant Games, I've met people who've spent time on dialysis and artificial hearts (Zonie Bill most notably); although I don't have personal experience with dialysis, I can safely recommend that people shouldn't kill themselves to provide a kidney for a daughter, dialysis is just not that bad.
2) The family's pain was due to just one factor: The wait time for a new organ. I think at one point they threw out a "20 year wait for a new kidney".

Imagine if there was a culture shift and people donated kidneys as easily as they donated blood.

There would be no pain. Acute Renal Failure? Fine, is surgery on Friday good for you? I just wish NBC had put a PSA at the end for organ donation.

Link ¶ 11:07 PM

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In 1986, doctors discovered that my Kidneys were failing, they gradually got worse until September 25, 2000 when my mother donated a kidney.

After the transplant, I felt like I needed to prove something to myself, so I took a bicycle tour(PACTour) across the US. I've competed at the US and the World Transplant Games as well as in Ultra distance events. My transplant will likely fail in the next couple of months and I'm currently preparing to go on dialysis.

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