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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on July 16, 2009, 09:47:04 AM
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Kidney recipient and wife help others facing kidney failure
by Stephanie Esters | Kalamazoo Gazette
Thursday July 16, 2009, 6:47 AM
KALAMAZOO -- When Jason Mitchell was going through kidney failure and a subsequent organ transplant, he and his wife, Tamara, decided they would someday start a foundation to help patients with kidney disease who are struggling financially.
The Kalamazoo couple have now established the Jason and Tamara Mitchell Foundation, which this Saturday night will hosts its first fundraiser, "An Evening Dinner with Live Jazz and Spoken Word and Silent Auction."
FOUNDATION FUNDRAISER
What: "An Evening Dinner with Live Jazz and Spoken Word and Silent Auction," to benefit the Jason and Tamara Mitchell Foundation, a nonprofit organization that gives grants to needy kidney patients and their families and supports youth through various academic and etiquette programs.
When: 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites, 100 W. Michigan Ave.
How much: $50 per person.
To reserve a seat: Call (800) 985-7576.
TO MAKE A DONATION
Tax-deductible donations may be sent to The Jason & Tamara Mitchell Foundation, The Peregrine Tower, 336 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 202, Kalamazoo, MI 49007.
ON THE WEB
• www.jasonandtamaramitchellfoundation.org
WILLING TO BE AN ORGAN DONOR?
To register as an organ donor in Michigan, go to www.tinyurl.com/MIOrganDonor. Michigan law does not require family consent before executing a person's wishes to be an organ donor, according to the Michigan Department of State.
They started the foundation in October with their own money. In May, the foundation awarded its first grant -- $600 -- to Donna Ronald Conley, a Gobles woman whose son, Darrell DeCamp, donated a kidney to her that month.
Jason Mitchell, 35, learned in 2004 that he had end-stage renal disease, or kidney failure. He was on dialysis for a little over four years. He received a donated kidney from a 35-year-old man from Wichita, Kan., who died in April 2008.
"After that experience -- the whole thing of being on dialysis, going through kidney failure, going through the kidney transplant process -- we were able to see a lot of what happens with that particular group of people," Mitchell said.
He watched patients who had just sat through a tiring dialysis treatment leave the dialysis center walking to catch a bus because they were unable to afford transportation. And he learned that others had lost utility service because of unpaid bills.
"We saw those needs," he said. "Some people couldn't keep their lights on, and there is really a need there. And I think people are really not aware of that."
"We just wanted to do what we could to help alleviate some of those concerns that they may have," said Tamara Mitchell.
The woman who received the foundation's first grant is facing challenges, too. Conley is raising the three young children of her daughter, Shannon, who died in her sleep in October 2007. Conley's son-in-law returned four months ago from Iraq and is currently stationed in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Jason Mitchell's bout with kidney disease started one day in February 2004, in Sacramento, Calif., where he lived at the time. He felt a slight tightening on the left side of his face. He brushed it off, only to feel more facial contractions two hours later, lasting about 10 seconds longer than the first.
Thinking he might be experiencing a stroke, he suggested to his wife of four months that they go to the hospital.
There he learned that his elevated blood pressure -- 260 over 170 -- had shocked his kidneys, causing them to shut down. Jason was hospitalized for several weeks and then intermittently until October 2004. At that time he went on dialysis -- a dialysis machine filters the blood to rid it of the toxins that the kidneys can no longer process.
The Mitchells, who both worked for the California legislature, were fortunate that their medical insurance covered Jason's medical expenses and that they had sufficient resources to cover other living expenses. In September 2007, they moved to Kalamazoo to be near family members. Tamara now runs an online perfume business and sells jewelry, and Jason's medical care is covered by Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
"I was blessed to have long-term disability insurance, which was able to bridge the gap with me not being able to work," Jason Mitchell said, "but a lot of people are just not as fortunate, and we saw a lot of people deteriorate."
In 2005, more than 485,000 Americans were being treated for kidney failure, according to the National Kidney Foundation. That same year, 85,790 patients died as a result of kidney disease.
Mitchell's name was added to the organ transplant list at the University of Michigan in December 2007. But he learned that Michigan's high rates of diabetes and obesity -- contributors to kidney disease -- meant a five- to six-year wait for a kidney.
At his doctors' suggestion, he applied to other transplant centers -- at the University of Toledo, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and the University of Kansas.
When Mitchell had moved up the transplant waiting list at the University of Kansas, the couple moved to Shawnee, Kan. They were living there only a month when the call came that a kidney was available.
Mitchell is now recovering at home, taking three anti-rejection drugs and medications to control his blood pressure and manage a pre-existing lupus condition, and said he will look for work again when his U-M doctors clear him to do so.
He said he's thankful for the gift of extended life but struggles with the fact that someone's death gave him life.
"I have chosen, at this point, not to (anonymously contact the donor family), because the things that I had been praying for ... came at such a negative price for that man's family," Mitchell said. "I'm still reconciling that in my own life and my own heart -- that something that made me so happy made them so sad."
In the meantime, he's putting his energy into raising money for the foundation, which, in addition to helping kidney patients, also supports programs for youth. The foundation has hosted one etiquette workshop for young women and plans to hold others on etiquette, academic counseling and tutoring and college preparation.
Contact Stephanie Esters at se@kalamazoogazette.com or 388-8554.
http://www.mlive.com/living/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/07/kidney_recipient_and_wife_help.html