Needed: New Healthy Kidney

Needed: New Healthy Kidney

Posted at: 05/21/2010 12:00 PM | Updated at: 05/21/2010 12:03 PM
By: Renee Passal

"Every two hours, someone waiting for a kidney dies. I don't want to be one of those people," said 23-year-old Matt Massie, of Hermantown.

He was diagnosed with full renal failure last summer. "I was feeling sick. I thought I had pneumonia, because I was having problems breathing. Found out my kidneys are failing, and spent five days in intensive care."

To keep himself healthy now, Massie goes through dialysis three times a week, four hours a day. He's hooked up to a machine that cleans his blood, which is what the kidneys are supposed to do.

"I'm feeling pretty good now. But I get really wiped out from the dialysis. I never know what my energy level will be, from day to day," he said.

Massie did have kidney disease when he was a child, but fully recovered from it.

Now, he needs a donor to resume a normal life, which includes his love of the outdoors. He's been on a transplant list since December.

But doctors said that it could take 5-6 years to find a match.

Matt's family has set up a website: www.operationkidney.com to speed up the process.

You can find links to information about how to donate, and what donation means for the donor.

There's also a walk sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation, coming up on Saturday, May 22nd, at 10am at Bayfront Park. The goal is to raise awareness about the importance of donating.

http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S1571172.shtml?cat=10349