Fighting Kidney Failure, Woman Hopes for New One

Fighting Kidney Failure, Woman Hopes for New One

Written by Rory McClannahan
Thursday, 25 September 2008 11:00

Dawn Chaplin says she doesn't know how much time she has left, but it may not be long.

The 39-year-old Moriarty woman says she wants to live long enough to see her 11-year-old daughter eventually get married. That may not happen, though, unless she can get a new kidney.

"I just take it one day at a time. I want to see my daughter get married," she says with a good-natured chuckle before adding, "after she graduates college."

Chaplin was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy in 2000 after going to the doctor complaining of tiredness. The condition is an autoimmune disorder affecting the kidneys. Many people have the condition with little problems, but some cases result in kidney failure.

That's what Chaplin faced.

"You don't live with IgA nephropathy, you go on dialysis," Chaplin said.

After her diagnosis, doctors put her on a course of immunity suppressants and chemotherapy for six months, but her kidneys were slowly failing.

Without hesitation, though, her brother, Sean Kelly, donated one of his kidneys in 2002.

"He's my hero," Chaplin says. "He gave me five good years that I didn't think I had."

Chaplin, who owns and operates a Moriarty motel, has three children. Her oldest, George Lewis Chaplin III, is in the Army. She also has a son Stephen, who is 17 years old, and her daughter, Samantha, is 11 years old.

At one point at the beginning of her illness, she said she had to send her two oldest children to live with their aunt because she couldn't care for them. Samantha, however, stayed with her and the then-4-year-old learned to take care of her mother.

"She's the real independent one," Chaplin said.

Last year, Chaplin's transplanted kidney started to fail. She explained that organ recipients have to take immunity suppressants their whole lives, otherwise their bodies would reject the new organ. However, that puts the organ recipient in danger of becoming ill.

The flu or a cold always means a trip to the hospital, Chaplin said.

In her case, it wasn't a cold or flu, but a return of her original condition.

"It was a 50-50 chance it would come back within five years," Chaplin said. "And it came back almost five years to the date."

Since December 2007, Chaplin has to go to dialysis three times a week for four hours each time.

Dialysis is a process where blood is taken out of the body, filtered of its impurities and put back in the body. It extends the life of many patients with kidney failure, but the process can't filter out all impurities.

A kidney is the best way to get that job done.

Members of Chaplin's family are willing to donate a kidney, but can't because they are either too young, already gave a kidney or have health problems of their own.

Chaplin is in the process of getting her name on the national organ donation list, but in the meantime, she is hoping someone will step forward and help her out.

Donating a kidney is a relatively common practice, but potential donors have to be in good health. In Chaplin's case, she needs a donor with O-positive blood.

According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, there were 16,623 kidney transplants in the U.S. in 2007. In addition, the is more than 76,000 people on the wait list for a kidney.

For more information about donating a kidney to Chaplin or anyone else, contact the Presbyterian Donor Services program at 563-2195.

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