Kidney patient hasn't found biological family

Kidney patient hasn't found biological family

Posted by Shantell M. Kirkendoll | The Flint Journal January 04, 2008 16:32PM

FLINT -- Her adoption was never a secret.

Juaice Lamar, 36, said she's always known she was adopted when she was only a few months old by a Flint teacher. But in March, The Flint Journal profiled Lamar in hopes the publicity could solve the mystery of who her biological family is in time to help with a kidney transplant.

"I'm still doing dialysis. Everything is the same," Lamar said. "Nobody called as far as telling me who my biological family is."

Janice Dillon, a Head Start teacher, contacted The Journal on Lamar's behalf after hearing her story during a home visit.

Lamar's family connections could be life-saving. The best medical match for replacing Lamar's failed kidneys is from someone in her biological family.

She was born Aug. 8, 1970 at Hurley Medical Center and was adopted by Gloria Lamar, a Flint elementary teacher, on Nov. 6.

Growing up it was just Juaice (pronounced wah-reese) and her adoptive mom, but a family friend has told Juaice that she may have sisters. Juaice, a nurse's assistant at McLaren Regional Medical Center, has moved up on the transplant list because of administrative changes with her transplant program.

That's good news because the dialysis is time-consuming, and forces her to put her dreams on hold. She wants to be a nurse.

"I was in nursing school about to do my clinicals prior to the renal failure," said Juaice, whose renal failure is a result of high blood pressure. "At almost five hours, there's no way I could keep up with dialysis and finish the training."

She is looking into getting a surgical procedure to allow peritoneal dialysis that she can do at home everyday. It may be a challenge to manage "because my 4-year-old is always around and I need to dialyze in a secluded area." And it's no substitute for a transplant.

"What would be awesome is a new kidney," she said.

http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2008/01/kidney_patient_hasnt_found_bio.html