Madison man needs a miracle

Madison man needs a miracle
By Jonathan Austin, Editor@newsrecordandsentinel.com
published April 20, 2009 10:27 am

Mark Freeman doesn’t just need the gift of a lifetime; he needs the gift of life.

Freeman, of Ammons Branch Road, Marshall, is losing his 26-year battle with diabetes, and says his doctors have told him the only way he will live is if he gets a new kidney.

When he told his family, they lined up to be tested to see which one could be the donor. It turns out that none of them meet the requirements.
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So Freeman, 46, is reaching out to see if someone else out there might be willing to be a living donor.

“I need a kidney. They told me the average wait is one to three years – and possibly five years,” Freeman said. “I don’t have that long.”

Freeman first knew he was living a compromised life at age 20, when he was diagnosed with diabetes. “They told me then that my kidneys were going to go,” he said, but with medical treatment and insulin, he managed to work and travel well into his 40s.

“I take four shots a day for the diabetes,” he said. “I worked right on up until a year, year-and-a-half ago. Then I got real sick. I knew then I was going to have to do something.”

He says doctors at Johnson City Medical Center told him he had to begin dialysis immediately.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, individuals are put on dialysis when they develop end stage kidney failure, which means they’ve lost about 85 to 90 percent of their kidney function.

Dialysis removes waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body; keeps a safe level of certain chemicals in the blood, such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate; and helps to control blood pressure, according to the kidney foundation.

Freeman gets his dialysis three days a week in Asheville, where he is hooked up to a filter machine for four hours straight each time. His blood is removed, run through the filter, and then returned.

“You just sit there and they run the blood out of you,” he said. The dialysis treatment is performed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and after he recovers from that, he said his Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are “semi-normal.”

On those off days, he said he does “feel OK; good enough to get outside. But in just an hour or two you run out of energy,” he said.

Freeman, a 1981 graduate of Madison High School, said he tales a handful of medicines every day, including blood thinners, vitamin D, and five different blood pressure medicines.

His blood pressure averages 210/110, which he said caused blood vessels to burst in his eyes. “The North Carolina Foundation for the Blind paid for eye laser surgery,” or he probably wouldn’t be able to see, he said.

The dialysis may keep Freeman alive, but “the longer you’re on that machine, the less you are able to accept a kidney” from a donor, he said.

That’s why he says he needs a living donor to give him a kidney.

According to the kidney foundation, “living donation takes place when a living person donates an organ (or part of an organ) for transplantation to another person. The living donor can be a family member, such as a parent, child, brother or sister (living related donation). Living donation can also come from someone who is emotionally related to the recipient, such as a good friend, spouse or an in-law (living unrelated donation).

In some cases, living donation may even be from a stranger.”

For Freeman, the donor needs to be blood type O.

Freeman says it isn’t easy asking for someone to consider giving a piece of their body, even if it means keeping him alive.

“I’ve thought a lot about that. It’s hard to ask somebody for that.” Then he stopped and cupped his face in his hand. The tears weren’t far behind.

“I’ve never had to ask somebody for something like that. I’ve always prided myself on never having to ask no one for nothing.”

Anyone wishing to help can contact Mark Freeman at 649-9117, or Jennifer Selman at 649-3316 or 779-4318.

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