In Need of Kidney Transplant, But Did He Wait Too Long?

In Need of Kidney Transplant, But Did He Wait Too Long?

By mwtsaginaw
published Jun 01, 2008

LANSING, Mich. - Dudley Williams says he hesitated to spread the word at first.
He is 40 years old, and he needs a kidney transplant to continue for a long and full life.
"When you are first diagnosed, you feel reclusive and you are concerned about your privacy," Williams says, reflecting concerns that occur among thousands of ailing Americans who could benefit from organ transplants.
"By the time there was a full diagnosis, I was shocked to find out I was already in total renal kidney failure," Williams says. "They still have not found a kidney for me. None of my family or friends is a tissue match. I'm going on my fifth year of dialysis and it doesn't look good. I am concerned that I may have waited too long to allow my need to be stated to the public, and so I wish to encourage others to act more promptly."
Williams, who is single, is a case manager for the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency in Lansing. Co-workers describe him as an outgoing personality who throws dinner parties for loved ones and friends, and who has enjoyed travel when able. However, his mother Mary Campbell says she encounters the troubled emotions that he does not share with others, especially on the Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays for kidney treatment.
An estimated 64,000 Americans are awaiting kidney transplants, says medical journalist Robert Finn, author of "Organ Transplants: Making the Most of Your Gift of Life."
"Patients and families worry that no organ will be available to them," Finn writes. "They may fear the surgery or what living with someone else's organ will feel like. They may have only a foggy idea of what staying with an immunosuppressive therapy regime after the operation will entail."
The first successful kidney transplant was in 1954, Wikipedia reports. Other groundbreaking transplants were a pancreas in 1966, and both a liver and a heart in 1967.
Kidney dialysis patients have only a 28 percent chance of surviving for five years without a transplant, and the percentage falls to 10 percent after that, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. However, if Williams were to receive a transplant this year at his personal five-year mark, his chances would increase beyond 90 percent. Even after 10 years, his prospects still would exceed 70 percent, according to the center.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that 217,000 Americans receive ongoing dialysis at an annual cost of $11 billion.
Overall, the National Kidney Foundation reports that more than 20 million Americans, or one in 10, have kidney ailments, but that many of their conditions are not yet diagnosed.
Those interested in more information may call the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan at 1-800-482-1455 or visit the website, www.nkfm.org.
"All it takes is a blood test to find out if you have the power to save a life," Williams says. "If not mine, perhaps someone else's."
RESOURCES
Personal interviews
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
National Center for Health Statistics
National Kidney Foundation of Michigan
"Organ Transplant" by Robert Finn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/organ_transplant

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/790507/in_need_of_kidney_transplant_but_did.html