Living Life with One Kidney

[okarol]

Living Life with One Kidney

March 30, 2009 - 9:43 AM
Carey Proctor

In 2001 Lani V. Jones was diagnosed with a form of chronic kidney disease. A few years later ... faced with the possibility of losing complete kidney function.... she decided to undergo a transplantation.

She received, in her words,  the "perfect kidney" from her sister Mel on June 18th, 2007.

During the months leading up to the surgery, Lani and Mel were introduced to Diann Scialdo, a teacher at Albany High. Diann's son Joe had been on dialysis for a year and badly needed a healthy kidney... which she happily gave him.

It took Diann about a month to fully recover... but she has no concerns about living life with only half of her kidney function.  She says, "There's a lot of people with one kidney in this world!  Just to see his quality of life again, I would give him my other kidney, you know?"

Lani says its the selflessness of people like her sister and Diann that help her get past the "what ifs."  She says she thinks daily about what could happen, but she's always thankful to get out of bed, put her feet on the ground and walk.

She just hopes the other 1.2 million new yorkers who suffer from chronic kidney disease receive the same amount of love and support that she and Joe do.

 http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/kidney_1262126___article.html/one_jones.html