Friends Seek Kidney Donations to Help to Save Acclaimed Seattle Physician and Activist Dr. Bob Jaffe!
Friends and family of doctor and famed anti-smoking activist seek potential donors via www. Kidney4Bob. org
(PRWEB) June 20, 2003
Seattle, WA. –– Dr. Bob Jaffe is a 50 year-old friend, father, husband, family physician and health activist. In 1997, he found himself in sudden renal failure. At the time, he was a busy physician in an inner-city clinic in Seattle, a health activist in the tobacco control campaign, and a husband and father with three children ages 3,4, and 14.
Now Jaffe’s illness has progressed to the point at which he must have a kidney, and soon. His friends and family are therefore seeking public awareness and support in hopes that a public campaign will assist Dr. Bob in getting the kidney he needs – and saving his life. To provide easily accessible information on Dr. Bob and his circumstances, as well as on the opportunity for living kidney donation, the group has launched www. Kidney4Bob. org.
A longtime healthcare and anti-smoking activist, Dr. Bob has been an integral and valued part of the Northwest healthcare community, and has continued to lead a life as close to normal as possible. His family and friends have shown unfailing support, with his sister donating a kidney in 1997. But the transplant failed from post-surgical complications, and since then, Bob has battled with the severe and often disabling consequences of renal failure and dialysis -- chronic anemia, sleep disorder, restless leg syndrome, cutaneous porphyria, chronic weakness and depression. He also has a progressive nerve damage that is severely damaging his feet and hands, and which limits his ability to walk. The only known way to eliminate these problems, and to prevent and to perhaps reverse the nerve damage, is a transplant.
Thanks to his own fortitude, family, and fighting spirit, Dr. Bob has been able to utilize dialysis to survive for over five years now. He dialyzes four days a week, more than 24 hours, and has adjusted to having dialysis during his sleep in order to allow more time to work and to be with his family (his dialysis technician even lives in an apartment in his home). But dialysis cannot act as a replacement for the kidneys forever, and the treatment is becoming increasingly less effective. Transplantation is most often the only solution for patients seeking a return to a normal and healthy life, offering excellent results as long as there are no complications, with typically long-range survival rates across the board.
The bottom line? Bob needs a kidney, and he needs it fast. Humans only need one kidney to survive, and living kidney donation means that there are millions of potential donors right now in any major city in the U. S. Therefore, Bob’s friends and supporters are now speaking out about living kidney donation, in hopes that among those healthy potential donors who come forward to save a life, that one of those donors will match – and save – Dr. Bob Jaffe.
Kidneys 101
A pair of bean-shaped glands located in the middle of the back, the kidneys filter the blood and keep it clean, eliminating toxins and metabolism waste as urine through the ureters and into the bladder. The kidneys regulate the body's water, adjust the blood's composition and its acid/base concentration, and (most significantly) remove wastes from the body (including urea, ammonia, drugs, and toxic substances). The kidneys also stimulate the creation of red blood cells and assist in maintaining the level of calcium in the body.
In short, the kidney's a good thing to have. But what most people may not be aware of is that they actually have one to spare. A single functioning kidney is sufficient to allow a healthy human being to live a long and normal life.
Living Kidney Donation: How You Can Help
The first step to being a living kidney donor is to learn as much as you can about the process (the website www. kidney4Bob. org is a great start). YouÂ’re also welcome to contact Bob (at 206-329-6465 or bob@kickbutt. org), or Janet Hiller RN (at 443-287-4335 or jmhiller@jhmi. edu) the Transplant Coordinator at Johns Hopkins, who will send potential participants a packet of information about the program.
If you want to find out if youÂ’re a potential compatible donor candidate for Bob, meanwhile, simply request a blood tube kit with your packet, which can then be taken to your doctorÂ’s office and sent via Federal Express (for free) to the transplant lab. Let them know when you plan to send your sample in, so that Dr. Bob can send in a sample that can be matched with yours. They will contact you and let you know if you match. Potential donors will need to have a blood type of B or O in order to donate to Bob (who is a type B).
Donor candidates should be in good health, as donors are excluded if they have other medical problems that might place them at risk from the surgery or from living with a single kidney. Both of your existing kidneys will be evaluated, and both must be in great shape. Potential candidates should talk to a spouse, family and a transplant clinic counselor about this decision.
If youÂ’re truly interested in being a donor and have a different blood type, you still might be able to help, as Johns Hopkins offers a program which allows people to trade with other potential donors who are mismatched with the person they want to help. You can then donate to another family, and their mismatched donor could donate to Dr. Bob.
For more information on kidney donation, visit The American Kidney Foundation online at http://www. kidney. org/general/atoz/content/orgdonor. html (http://www. kidney. org/general/atoz/content/orgdonor. html), or Johns Hopkins at http://www. hopkinsmedicine. org/transplant/patient/quiet_heroes. html (http://www. hopkinsmedicine. org/transplant/patient/quiet_heroes. html).
Non-Donation Support Options
For those who are not donation candidates, Jaffe and his friends ask you to support organizations that are supporting people like Bob. The Northwest Kidney Center (206-292-2771) is the non-profit center that helps Bob to dialyze at home. The Northwest Kidney Center was actually the first dialysis center in the world, and has developed services over the last 25 years which have allowed thousands of others to stay alive through dialysis at home, or in one of their centers in Western Washington. The Northwest Kidney Center can always use more volunteers, and offers a foundation that helps those who are unable to afford dialysis care.
Other options? Donate blood at your local blood bank. Donate white blood cells from your bone marrow. If someone being treated for cancer matches with you, it can help them survive the chemotherapy and radiation. Sign up to be an organ donor at the end of your life by signing the donor card box on your driverÂ’s license. Talk to friends and family and ask them to do the same.
Support Dr. Bob Today
Give a kidney to Dr. Bob. You'll help save a life -- and you'll have a great story to tell at parties (especially if you give it that urban legend spin... "I woke up in a bathtub, and..."). You can make a difference.
If you, or someone you know, would be interested in getting tested, please contact Dr. Bob Jaffe directly at 206-329-6465 or by e-mailing bob@kickbutt. org, or contact the Johns Hopkins Highly Sensitized Kidney Transplant by contacting Janet Hiller, R. N. at jmhiller@jhmi. edu.
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