Eddie Murphy's childhood pal launches kidney patients' fund

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Eddie Murphy's childhood pal launches kidney patients' fund
7:00 PM, Feb. 22, 20

MIDDLESEX COUNTY — Harris Haith remembers being in Las Vegas on a book tour when he got really sick. He had a headache, stomach flu-like symptoms, high blood pressure and difficulty walking.

Friends who took him to the hospital thought he would die.

Haith spent five days in intensive care. Doctors told him he had suffered kidney failure and had to go on dialysis to remove the toxins from his blood.

Five years later, on April 1, 2008, Haith underwent a kidney transplant operation at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

"They saved my life. I want the whole world to know," said Haith, a Woodbridge resident, of the hospital's transplant team headed by Dr. David Laskow, chief of kidney and pancreas transplantation at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

And now that Haith has been given the gift of life, he wants to extend that lifeline to others through the formation of the Harris Haith Patient Relief Fund at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital to assist low-income patients who have difficulty paying for their expensive transplant medications.

"It's only right to give back," Haith said.

And Haith is looking to use his childhood memories of being neighbors with comedian Eddie Murphy to help raise money for the fund.

Haith, 52, a native of Queens who moved to Murphy's hometown of Roosevelt, N.Y., when he was about 12 years old, has published a book titled "Growing Up Laughing with Eddie Murphy," which is scheduled to go into movie production this summer. The film is scheduled to be released next year.

"This is my story. I was blessed to grow up with Eddie," Haith said.

Haith said he will donate 10 percent of the book's net profits and the upcoming film adaptation toward the kidney patient fund. He also said he plans to include the names of the people who bought the book in the movie's credits.

"The object is to help people who can't afford their transplant medication," Haith said during a recent announcement of the fund at the hospital.


He said if transplant recipients don't take their medication they can lose their donated organ and go back on dialysis.

"It ruins a person's life," Haith said. "We pay more for patients to be on dialysis than transplant medications."

Laskow said that in the current economic condition, everyone is struggling. He said a lot of transplant patients have lost their jobs and the extensions on their medical insurance have run out. He said transplant medications can run from $8,000 to $12,000 a year, which patients can't afford, especially if there are lapses in their insurance.

"This (fund) is to help people bridge the gap," said Laskow, adding that he doesn't want to see people lose organs because they can't afford the medications.

He'd like to see the fund grow to the point that the interest could keep it going.

Haith said he also has agreed to chair the Laskow Foundation to educate the black community about kidney failure.

"We need to get the word out and save some lives," Haith said.

There are about 110,000 people waiting for life-saving transplant operations, with 4,700 in New Jersey. About 37 percent of the people on the waiting list are black, but in 2010 17 percent of the donors were of black descent, according to Oscar Colon, New Jersey Sharing Network in-house clinical donation specialist.

"We need to continue educating our public and ourselves about the increasing need for organ donations," Colon said. "Organ donation can save so many lives."

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20110222/NJNEWS/102220351/Eddie-Murphy-s-childhood-pal-launches-kidney-patients-fund