Spare your spare for Sammy

Hi. My name is Laura Wise. My nephew, Sammy (21 years old), needs a kidney. He just had to go on dialysis because both of his kidneys failed.

 

I'm asking for your help in one of two ways:

 

Sam was born with cystic fibrosis. He's spent the last twelve years in and out of the hospital. In 2017, he received a life-changing liver transplant. Sammy was touched by all the people who helped bring him this gift of life, especially the family who graciously donated the liver of their deceased loved one.

 

After Sam's lengthy, challenging recovery, he became healthy enough to plan for his future. Sam wanted to become a firefighter, feeling the need to give back to his community in a life-affirming way. He went to school to become an EMT, then entered the fire academy. Sam's kidneys began to fail soon into his fire academy training. We learned that one of the anti-rejection medications from the liver transplant caused damage to the kidneys. His kidneys didn't recover even after he stopped the medication. Despite this news, Sammy pressed on, successfully graduated from the fire academy, and proudly joined the firefighter family.

 

This week, Sammy was admitted to the hospital with Stage 5 kidney failure. He was given 3 options:

The only viable option for Sam—who is not done with life—was to begin dialysis and hope for a kidney.

 

The average wait time on the deceased donor kidney list is five years. We do not know when he will get the call that a kidney is available, so we are looking for a living donor who can spare their spare kidney while we wait.

 

If you would like to donate funds to help Sammy through this challenging time, please do so using this GoFundMe site.

 

If you would like to learn more about potentially donating a kidney directly to Sam or on his behalf, please check out the National Kidney Foundation's website.

 

Thank you so much for considering these ways of helping my nephew Sammy!

 

--Laura