Can Ron Rosenbaum Have One Of Your Kidneys?
I learned, to my dismay, last year sometime, that my sweet, talented, and brilliant author and magazine writer friend, Ron Rosenbaum, -- @RonRosenbaum1 -- needs a kidney.
(Picture of Ron and a review of his most recent book here.)
Ron doesn't like to ask people for minor favors, so I figured he'd have a really hard time with the, "Got an internal organ I could have?" thing.
So, bossy broad that I am, I said, "I'll ask for you! Just tell me when."
Well, now's finally the time.
So, here goes: Ron Rosenbaum is a candidate for a kidney transplant and needs a live donor. Are you the one?
Email Jack Shafer for details: shafer.politico@gmail.com
And please feel free to share this on social media.
Kidney donation? Maybe you've never given it any thought. Well, you're in luck.
My friend Virginia Postrel gave one of her kidneys to Sally Satel. She wrote about it in Texas Monthly in 2006, "How and why I became an organ donor -- and how I kept people from talking me out of it."
Until last November, I'd never thought about being a kidney donor. I hadn't known anyone with kidney disease, and like most people, I hadn't filled out an organ donation form when I'd gotten my driver's license. I'd never even donated blood. That all changed after I ran into a friend and asked, "How's Sally?" I got an unexpected answer: "She's. . . all right," in a tone that made it clear she was most definitely not all right.Sally Satel and I have been friends since 1997. We're kindred spirits -- strong-willed, intellectual iconoclasts who are a bit too ingenuous for our own good. But she lives in Washington, D.C., where she's a fellow at a think tank, and I live in Dallas. We almost never see each other and communicate mostly by e-mail. We follow each other's work but don't share our day-to-day lives. Last fall, no one would have called us close.
So I had no idea Sally's kidneys were failing. She needed a transplant, our friend told me. Otherwise, she'd soon be on dialysis, tied at least three days a week to a machine that would filter poisons from her blood. For someone who prizes her independence and freedom of movement as much as Sally does, dialysis would have been a prison sentence.
With no spouse, children, siblings, or parents to offer her a kidney, I thought she must be desperate. I knew the chances of getting a cadaver kidney were low, although I didn't realize how truly miniscule: More than 66,000 Americans are on the waiting list for the 6,700 or so cadaver kidneys that are available each year. Just thinking about her situation made my heart race with empathetic panic.
"Maybe we can do something to get Sally a kidney," I said. It probably sounded as if I were proposing a publicity campaign. After all, she and I and our mutual friend are in the persuasion business: We write books and articles and have lots of press connections. What I really meant, though, was "Maybe I can give Sally a kidney." At the time, it seemed like a perfectly natural reaction.
Usually when someone is seriously ill, all you can do is lend moral support and maybe cook some meals or run a few errands. Nothing you do will make that person well. But if you donate a kidney, you can (with the help of a team of medical specialists) cure her. Who wouldn't want to do it? I had no idea what a strange thought that was.
Nor did I sort through my motivations. I've spent a good bit of my life trying to save the world, mostly by working to beat back bad government policies, including some that would have stifled medical research. But even when your side wins, the victory is incremental and rarely permanent. And people of goodwill dedicated to the same good cause can be awfully contentious about how to achieve their goals.
In this case, there was something reassuring about the idea that the benefit wouldn't depend at all on my talents, persuasiveness, or intellect. It would be simple. All I had to do was show up. In middle age, I've realized that I can't save the world. But maybe I could save Sally. Someone had to.
The rest of the piece details what the whole procedure is like.
PS When Sally came on my podcast, just before air, I had to mention it: "I just wanted to give a little wave to my friend Virginia's kidney."
She laughed.
Again, if you might even consider doing this for Ron -- a seriously awesome thing to do for another human -- please email Jack Shafer at the address above.
I'd love to help, but my mother has kidney failure, and unless she turns out to be a lousy candidate for donation, one of my kidneys is reserved for her. She is on dialysis. However, periodic reminders on this blog would be great, in case things change.
mpetrie98 at February 19, 2018 3:15 PM
We get lots of inquiries about finding living donors at Living Donors Online (web site and Facebook group), so we put a web page together with suggestions on how to find a living donor. We hope this helps Ron find a donor! http://livingdonorsonline.org/finding-living-donor/
Michael at February 20, 2018 4:08 PM
Michael, good website - thanks for the link.
I can't donate a kidney at this time of my life, but bone marrow donation seems feasible.
Here's the url for people who want to look into being a living donor:
livingdonorsonline.org/general-information/
Michelle at February 20, 2018 6:53 PM
Actual link:
livingdonorsonline.org/general-information/
Michelle at February 20, 2018 6:59 PM
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