In the latest feel-good story of the year, former Mets general manager Jim Duquette donated one of his kidneys on Monday in hopes of giving his 10-year-old daughter a normal childhood.
For the past year Lindsey Duquette, who suffers from a rare kidney disorder named focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), has spent a large portion of her day tethered to a dialysis machine after both of her kidneys shut down and had to be removed.
On Monday, Jim, now an MLB analyst and Sirius radio host, was scheduled to go under the knife at Johns Hopkins Hospital and give his daughter the greatest gift she could receive: a new kidney and hopefully a new lease on life, freeing her up from the ravages of FSGS.
“When we started out with this whole thing, I never would have imagined we’d have ever gotten to this point,” Duquette told the NY Post by phone over the weekend. “But Lindsey’s been dealing with this since she was 2 1/2.’’
Following Lindsey’s kidney transplant, doctors say there is a 50/50 chance that her body will reject the new organ. Should her body accept the new kidney, Lindsey then has a seventy percent chance that FSGS wont return.
“I like those percentages,” Jim Duquette said. “We’re pretty hopeful.’’
According to the Post, FSGS, for which there is no known cause or cure, is a rare disease that attacks the kidney’s filtering system (glomeruli) causing serious scarring. More than 5,400 people are diagnosed with FSGS each year and it is the leading cause of kidney failure in children.
“More research is necessary to figure out the pathways, where the disease is coming from and what causes it,” said Henry Brehm, executive director of the NephCure Foundation, which supports research to find a cure. “Until the scientists figure out what causes it, we can’t develop a therapy or drug.”
The generosity of live organ donors is wonderful. It's a shame we need so many live organ donors. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.
There is another good way to put a big dent in the organ shortage — if you don't agree to donate your organs when you die, then you go to the back of the waiting list if you ever need an organ to live.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. About 50% of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven't agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition. LifeSharers has over 15,000 members.
Please contact me if your readers would like to learn more about our innovative approach to increasing the number of organ donors. I can arrange interviews with some of our local members if you're interested. Please let me know if you have any questions. David J. Undis, Executive Director of LifeSharers at http://www.lifesharers.org 6509 Cornwall Drive Nashville, TN 37205 phone 615-351-8622.
I have FSGS too and i know that your daughter realky appreciates it