Emily Pooler: Little Girl With Kidney Disease Uses YouTube To Ask For Donor


Emily Pooler, an 11-year-old girl from Auburn, Maine, has taken to YouTube and Facebook to ask for help in finding a kidney donor, WCSH-TV (Portland) is reporting.

You wouldn’t know from looking at her that Emily is particularly sick. Like most girls her age, she plays with her friends, rides her bike, goes for walks with her dogs. Unfortunately, Emily has two major health issues that will affect her for the rest of her life. For one thing, she has a disease known as Caudal Regression Syndrome; in essence, she’s missing the entire lower half of her spine.

The young lady has gamely endured multiple surgeries to correct problems related to her spinal issues. However, two years ago, at age 8, she learned of a much more urgent problem: stage four chronic kidney disease, and she’s going to need a transplant. She remembers the moment she was diagnosed.

“I just was thinking, why would I want another person’s kidney inside me?”

Close relatives, particularly parents and siblings, are the natural choice for a donor when someone needs an organ transplant. Unfortunately, for reasons that aren’t clear, her parents aren’t eligible to be donors. That means that, says mom Alison via The Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal, Emily will be sick unless and until a stranger steps up to donate a kidney.

“We’ve literally been living on a hope and a prayer. Her kidney function has been stable, at between 28 to 30 percent. It will never be higher without a transplant.”

Now, Emily’s parents are doing the only thing they know how to do to find a donor for their daughter: they’re using social media. Alison took to both Facebook and YouTube to look for a donor; in the 30-second YouTube video below, you can hear Emily asking for a stranger to step up and save her life.

“Hi. My name is Emily Pooler. I have stage four chronic kidney disease.”

She goes on to specify what she needs in a kidney donor: you have to be “very healthy” and have either Type A or Type O blood. She then holds up the contact information for the Maine Transplant Program.

As she waits for a stranger to step up, Emily and her family are doing the best they can. She’s a part of the Make-A-Wish program, and last year, her wish was granted with a trip to Walt Disney World.

“We are just wanting to find her a donor so she can continue to smile, laugh and do all she loves to do. She is a warrior who has been through so much and has fought since day one of birth because she was born seven weeks early.”

Anyone who believes they may be a potential donor for Emily is encouraged to contact the Maine Transplant Program via their website, which can be found here. Alternatively, you can contact them by telephone 207-662-7180, ext.4.

[Featured Image by Nattapol Sritongcom/Shutterstock]

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