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When Melanie Perry scans the seventh-floor window of her skyscraper Kenwood, she has an unobstructed view of the helipad of the University of Chicago Medical Center
"This is as if God told me that your kidney is in your opinion, "she said," God keep me. He can move mountains. "
Perry, 34, has spent most of her life hoping for better days.When she was a girl, she was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that claimed both kidneys. The failure of her first transplant, her relationship with dialysis began for 16 years, and every week she undergoes three appointments, each up to four hours.
The grueling routine saved her the life, but it also made a new transplant more difficult.After so many years of dialysis and receiving blood products, "I'm kind of like a melting pot, which makes it difficult to find a match, "she says.
So she's turned to social media to reach as many people as possible ready to give a kidney." I'm exhausted emotionally, "she said. recently stated. "I'm afraid of not being able to (a kidney).
Perry is not alone.
More than 8 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney failure and approximately 450,000 of them are kept alive through dialysis. . About 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant, including nearly 300 deaths, according to the Donation Network Gift and Tissue Donations. Just in Chicago, about 3,165 people are on the waiting list
Most people in this country waiting for an organ transplant need a kidney. Next in line are those who are waiting for a liver, then the heart, then the lung. The wait for a kidney donation can be years, compared to weeks or months for a heart.
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Like Perry, more and more people are turning to social media as advances in medicine make more and more possible the possibility for foreigners to become living donors
Facebook allows members to share their status as an organ donor. Online sites offer advice and help people to find potential donors or to register as one. They include WaitList Zero, the National Kidney Registry and the Alliance for Twin Kidney Donation
An article published this month in the journal Bioethics offered Facebook-like platforms where people in search of living donors could publish information about themselves. Write Greg Moorlock and Heather Draper at Warwick Medical School in England. "But something that elicits a stronger, immediate emotional response may be more effective in motivating them to provide a solution."
The authors fear that such networks may be abused by people who profit from the "clandestine organ market". argue that the benefits are always worth studying. "The use of" identifiable victims "as part of a personalized approach to promoting donation can be an effective way to increase living kidney donation," they conclude.
The National Kidney Foundation also calls for caution. Ask for advice at your transplant center Do not put yourself in a vulnerable situation where someone can try to take advantage of your situation. United States since 1984, when it was outlawed by the Act on Organ Transplantation. "
Living donors – like the son who gave his father a kidney, Commissioner Eddie Johnson of Chicago – are key to reducing the long waiting list." Kevin Cmunt, CEO of the Network Donors of Organs and Tissues Gift of Hope
The network has overseen about 260 live donation transplants and its goal is 500 by 2020, said Dr. Cmunt. group reaches its goal.
"A person can function very well and normally with a single kidney," he said. "With education about living donation, we can make people at home. 39 with the process and reduce the number of deaths each year. "
Cmunt acknowledged that many people in need of a kidney find it difficult to ask a parent or friend. a stranger.
Perry said she had to get upset to ask her family. When there was no one, she was finally went on Facebook.
She posted her status on Facebook and asked friends to get tested to see if they matched her. She also asked them to reach out to their friends. She made her appeal in early March and still found no one
Meanwhile, her situation is becoming more urgent. Last year, tests showed that calcifications in his body – abnormal accumulation of calcium salts – worsened.
The calcium buildup will eventually get to the point where Perry will no longer be able to receive new kidney, according to Dr. Yolanda Becker, surgical director of the kidney and pancreas transplant team at the University of Toronto. University of Chicago Medicine. "Dialysis is a rescue procedure that cleanses the poison from your body, but it's not natural," she said. "Finally, you get a hardening of the arteries."
Perry had other health problems. She spent most of the month of April and part of May at the hospital for digestive and gastric problems.
Perry was able to capture glimmers of hope during his terminal kidney struggles
. "I was a hermit before school, but I even made the Dean's list," Perry said. "It was an experience."
Going to school opened his eyes to other possibilities. "I want to work in. I like to do customer service," she said, "I want to travel and explore things."
But Perry did not stop on D & D Other dreams, like getting married or starting a family. "I do not even bother going out together. The guys of my age are so immature, "she said." I do not want to deal with grief. "
But who knows what could happen, she wonders, if someone calls finally his transplant team at the University of Chicago Medicine (773-702-4500) and asks to get
"I do not want anyone to feel sorry for me," said Perry. "If you do not want to do it, it's not a pressure. But doing it can save my life. "
The screening process begins with a simple blood test, those who want to be a living donor must be 18 years old and share the same blood group as the person receiving the organ." Donors must be prepared to undergo In-depth medical and psychological screenings, including a check of the HLA human leukocyte antigen, which plays a role in the body's immune response to foreign substances. The HLA level helps to determine the probability of rejection
Usually, donors should not suffer from high blood pressure, uncontrollable diabetes, HIV / AIDS or hepatitis
. "Becker adds that postoperative care accompanied by some instructions like not to lift heavy loads.
Usually the insurance of the recipient of the transplant covers such expenses as evaluation, surgery and a part of life, follow-up test. Potential donors can contact the Living Donors Support Center at 703-414-1600 or LivingDonorAssistance.org to ask questions and help with costs.
Don Hope officials work with legislators to draft measures that would provide specialized health care for donors. According to Cmunt, a family leave measure would also protect the donors of a workplace.
"You can save someone's life," said Mr. Cmunt. "There is nothing greater than you can do in life."
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