GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Amy McKay, a resident of Grand Rapids, told ABC’s WZZM13 that she doesn’t have much time left to find a kidney and is asking the public for their help. She has stage five kidney disease and is hoping for a miracle. She said that her need is urgent, “My nephrologist said probably within three months, I’ll need to be on dialysis or have a new kidney.”
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With her condition getting worse and worse, she told WZZM13, “I’m exhausted all the time, I’m super tired, and I can’t live a normal life.”
She went on to say, “”I don’t have much time. and they said that when you aren’t on dialysis and you need dialysis, your body will shut down and you will die in three months. So it’s like it’s scary. It’s very urgent. It’s very scary.”
Nationwide, there are more than 90,000 people on the waiting list for a kidney according to Donate Life America and more than 2,000 in Michigan according to the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan including McKay, who says the average wait time in the state is from five to six months.
Because of that, McKay is taking matters into her own hands and going to the media to find a match because she said “it’s life and death.” The donator needs to have the same blood type as her which is O+ positive and she gave out her email to the public in the WZZM13 story.
The Mercy Health’s Kidney Transplant Center website says that living donor criteria includes being between 18-years-old and 65-years-old and being medically and psychologically healthy in excellent health with situations decided on a case-by-case basic.
McKay told WZZM13 that this year has been the hardest of her life with medical appointments, hospital visits and her declining diagnosis. She’s not able to do traditional or stomach dialysis because of her medical history which is what is making her desperate. Even if she finds a kidney soon, the future is scary because the process can take up to six months.
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