A 亚洲天堂 Lake man and his family have put out a call for a kidney donor.
Murphy Patrick Jr. had a liver transplant in November of 2022 and exactly one year later, his kidneys collapsed. He now requires a kidney transplant, and his family has put out a call to the public to find a donor.
Patrick Jr. has had autoimmune diseases for a number of years. When COVID-19 hit, his condition got worse and he ended up in the ERs of multiple hospitals, including one in southern California. He spent the next eight weeks in the hospital before a specialist told him he would most likely require a kidney transplant.
He met with the transplant unit in Vancouver at the end of last October and was deemed a good candidate as there were no major issues found during his assessment, and was subsequently placed on the transplant list.
Patrick Jr. said his kidneys were functioning around a glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 75. An eGFR of 60 to 89 may indicate early-stage kidney disease, but it may also be normal for some people, and for Patrick Jr., it was barely an issue. He said he still felt fine, until follow-up blood work caused him to return to the hospital to have his blood again. The doctors thought there may be a blockage in his kidneys and had to flush them out.
Nothing happened overnight and Patrick Jr.'s kidney function kept declining. He went from having an eGFR of 75 to 35 in just a couple of weeks and it soon dipped to eight. He went to Prince George to do a biopsy on Jan 1 of last year and was placed on dialysis a week later, along with a high dosage of steroids. He continues to make trips back and forth to Prince George for treatments.
"I go [to Prince George] three times a week," he said. It's a bit of a chore 鈥� four hours each time plus travel time."
Last February while on dialysis, he got sick with pneumonia and ended up back in the hospital.
"I remember them rolling me into the ER but I must've passed out," Patrick Jr. recalled. "I woke up a week later on Feb. 13."
Doctors ended up draining Patrick Jr.'s lungs.
Patrick Jr. is now waiting for a donor, and his cousin has helped expedite his cause by putting together a poster with all the crucial information to share with the public.
"I'm quite a private person and didn't really want people to know," Patrick Jr. said. "My mom was like, 'maybe we should do a call out and let people know.'"
Patrick Jr. also said he feels healthy and is grateful for where he is currently and for the support he has received from the community.
To learn more about kidney donation or to donate, email kidneydonornurse@vch.ca.
