A Clayton couple is hoping to find someone out there who is a match for a needed kidney ā before itās too late.
Carla Jung has been posting about the urgency of her husband, Davidās, need for a donor on social media recently, now that he has less than five per cent kidney function.
āMy husband is a really reserved, private manā¦ this is something we wouldnāt usually do, but weāre at the point where if he doesnāt get one soon, he likely wonāt be healthy enough to have (a transplant),ā Carla, who goes by Carla Nicholls Jung on Facebook, said Sunday (Jan. 7).
āItās something we want to get out there now ā weāve got two small children, so that makes things scary.ā
Their kids are now 10 and five, and she and David celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary last year, albeit, not how they had planned.
They had known Davidās kidney function was lower, Carla recalled, so he was referred to a kidney specialist and had some tests done during the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ ALSO:
āThey did a biopsy and the results came back and he was at about 50 per cent (kidney function) but because of COVID it ended up on a desk and was missed,ā she said.
By May of 2022, her husband was planning to attend a big conference in Paris with his work, a pharmaceutical company, where he would be speaking.
āHe was so excited! We went and bought him a new suitā¦ I said, āIf youāre missing our 10-year wedding anniversary, youāre doing your bloodwork before you go,āā Carla remembered, noting that he had been quite tired, but āheās also one of those people who works really, really hard.ā
Within 12 hours of getting Davidās bloodwork done, their family doctor called and told David he needed to go to emergency immediately.
āWe found out on our 10th wedding anniversary that his kidney function was, I think, at 11 per cent then, and he was told that he would need a kidney transplant and he would need to start dialysis or he would die,ā she said.
Because his health declined so much and so quickly, he had to start emergency dialysis right away.
Now, her husband must do dialysis at night ā all night.
āHe has a machine that cleans his blood every night. He hooks up at 8:30 and he runs all night, so when the kids get sick at night thereās no one else that can help but meā¦ if heās hungry or needs anything, or thereās an emergency, he canāt just simply unhook ā he has to stay hooked up,ā Carla said.
āNow because itās gotten worse, he has to do dialysis during the day while heās at work. Heās so tired when he comes homeā¦ weāre at the point where Iām thinking are we going to have to sell our house? Are we going to have to make some huge changes?ā
Carla emphasized that if Davidās kidney function gets even lower, āhe wonāt be healthy enough to have a transplant, and that means that itāll be terminal, and that will be it.ā
They are hoping a donor will come forward ā a Type O donor is ideal, but thereās also a pairing program where other blood types can donate a kidney, Carla noted.
āTheyād basically just swap it with one that works for him, and it bumps him up the listā¦ they kind of do a swap.ā
If someone is interested in finding out if theyāre a match to donate a kidney, they can email kidneydonornurse@vch.ca and providing Davidās transplant ID #24894.
āItās such a selfless gift to give somebody else,ā Carla said, adding that she knows people can often, wait years for a donor, but āDavid doesnāt have that time to wait.ā
āIt would really mean the world to my kidsā¦ I lost my Dad waiting for a transplant, and anything that we can do to avoid my kids experiencing the same would mean a lot to them and my family and to Dave.ā
