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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on October 30, 2009, 05:11:07 PM
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Waukeganite plays waiting game for kidney transplant
Operation will free him from dialysis
October 28, 2009
By JUDY MASTERSON JMASTERSON@SCN1.COM
WAUKEGAN -- The call may come in the middle of the night, and when it comes, Ron Howard will grab the keys to his car, where he has already stashed a bag that holds a toothbrush and a Bible, and drive south.
Once he arrives at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, he will undergo the surgery that, if all goes well, will finally set him free.
"It will be the biggest day of my life because my life will be changed," said Howard, 57, of Waukegan.
For five years, Howard has undergone kidney dialysis, a painful, but life-extending treatment in which fat, 15-gauge needles -- one to take the blood in, one to take the blood out -- connect him to the tentacles of a big machine. The machine removes toxins and excess fluids from his body, the job his kidneys did before they stopped working.
For five years he has patiently waited and prayed for a donor kidney. And now it's his turn. He is at the top of the recipient list.
Diagnosed with diabetes in his late 30s, Howard soon stopped prescribed insulin injections.
"I always hated needles," he said -- and spent the next 13 years off medication.
"The thing with diabetes is you look in the mirror every day and you don't see a change, but every day diabetes is doing something to your organs," he said.
Diabetes wreaked silent havoc on Howard's kidneys. Untreated, the disease also causes heart failure and loss of vision. Just before Thanksgiving 2004, Howard's body revolted. He underwent surgery for a fistula -- an enlarged vein -- in his arm. A catheter was inserted in his chest, and life on dialysis began.
A former house manager at Waukegan Township Staben Center, a transitional living program for homeless men, Howard was declared disabled. Determined to help others, he chauffeured fellow dialysis patients to treatment and to transplant consultations. He learned about his disease, and its only cure, in an effort to educate others.
Howard has had five years to contemplate a stark fact: His new life will come at great cost.
"In order for me to live, someone has to die," he said. "Most kidneys are from cadavers, from people who have passed on. But you don't have to wait to die to help."
Howard hopes more people will consider becoming living donors -- for friends, relatives, even strangers in need. More hospitals around the country are working to develop donation chains. According to Bryan VanSteenbergen, spokesman for the National Kidney Foundation, living-donor kidneys can be exchanged using computer programs that help match possible recipients to willing donors.
Arlena Taylor of Beach Park works to educate potential donors, particularly blacks, as a member of the Gift of Hope North Shore Chapter. Blacks make up 29 percent of patients on the national organ transplant waiting list, and 35 percent of those are waiting for kidneys, but account for only 14 percent of organ donors. About 80,000 people nationwide are waiting for donor kidneys.
"We need to give our organs to people who need them," Taylor said. "I don't believe I need my organs when I die. If I can save lives, take whatever I have."
Howard credits excellent medical care, a good support system and faith in God for his survival. After he receives a kidney, his life expectancy will increase by a possible 25 years.
"Faith has been the most important," he said. "If you don't have hope things will get better, you can feel trapped, become defeated. I'm grateful I've been a source of encouragement to others, to the next person, who might see that if I can make it, they can, too."
A new kidney will mean an end to dialysis. Howard will be able to travel to Georgia to visit his newborn grandson. It will give him the time and the energy to speak to groups, to urge others to take their health seriously.
"I want to help make somebody else's journey a little easier," he said. "I'm hoping somebody else won't have to wait on that list."
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» Click to enlarge image
Howard
National donor sabbath
Gift of Hope North Shore Task Force will celebrate "the miracle of organ and tissue transplantation" with the 14th annual National Donor Sabbath, scheduled 6 p.m. Nov. 14 at Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, 1101 Argonne Drive, North Chicago.
The event is aimed at raising awareness among faith communities of the urgent need for organ and tissue donation. More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for organ donations, including nearly 5,000 in Illinois. Each day, an average of 18 people die waiting for transplants.
The North Shore Taskforce of the Gift of Hope meets at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at Waukegan Township Park Place, 414 S. Lewis Ave. Waukegan. For more information, call Priscilla Holliday at (847) 840-3149.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1850226,5_1_WA28_KIDNEY_S1-091028.article