Former NFL Player Albert Haynesworth Had 12 Pounds Of Fluid Removed From Lungs After Recent Kidney Donor Plea


Former NFL star Albert Haynesworth told his fans in an Instagram post that he had 12 pounds of fluid removed from his lungs as he battles kidney disease and undergoes dialysis.

Haynesworth, 38, retired from football in 2011 after a career as one of the best defensive tackles to have ever played. Despite his stellar career on the field, however, his health has taken a serious turn for the worst post-retirement. As MSN reported last week, Haynesworth announced at the time that he needed a kidney transplant.

“Some of you may know I’ve been battling kidney disease for a few years now. The time has come family, friends and fans. I’m in dire need of a kidney. Mine have finally failed me on July 7, 2019,” he wrote at the time.

Since announcing his kidney failure, he’s used his social media presence to ask for a donor.

According to the American Kidney Fund, 100,000 people are on waiting lists for kidney transplants across the U.S. Unlike hearts or corneas or other organ donations, a person doesn’t have to die in order to be able to donate a kidney; if you have two working kidneys, you can donate one to someone in need and still live a normal life (you only need one).

Ideally, a family member would be the best match as a kidney donor, but that’s not always possible, and sometimes the person in need of a kidney transplant will have to be put on a donor list, hoping for a donation from someone who dies, or from a living person who donates a kidney out of the goodness of their heart.

That’s the direction Haynesworth has taken. In his Instagram post, he promises that whoever donates a kidney will have the cost covered by his (Haynesworth’s) health insurance and will possibly even get a small grant, though Haynesworth promises it won’t be much.

Fortunately for the former Tennessee Titans player, several users have commented that they would be willing to donate one of their kidneys.

Meanwhile, Haynesworth has done what most people in kidney failure do: he’s started dialysis. During the procedure, he learned that his kidney problem is so severe that it’s resulted in 12 pounds of fluid having developed around his lungs. The fluid was subsequently removed.

This is the second major health issue that Haynesworth has dealt with since his retirement. As ESPN reported in 2016, Haynesworth revealed at the time that, two years earlier, he had two brain aneurysms, both of which nearly killed him, as he described it. He spent 11 days in intensive care at a Florida hospital.

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