Mother desperately seeking kidney
Langley woman lives 25 years with transplanted organ, but now it's starting to fail
Jacqueline Nemeth - with daughters Jessica (left), Julianna, and Jade - may soon have to go on dialysis.
Photograph by: Mark Van Manen, PNG, Vancouver Sun
Jacqueline Nemeth, a 45-year-old Langley mother of three, is hoping to defy the odds once again by finding a donor who is willing to give her a kidney.
Nemeth, who was diagnosed at age 17 with kidney failure, lived on dialysis for three years before getting a kidney transplant at the age of 20. That kidney, from a 40-year-old woman who had died and donated her organs, allowed Nemeth to go on and have children after doctors initially told her motherhood wasn't possible.
Her kidney also lasted much longer than what most kidneys transplanted from a cadaver are meant to last: 25 years instead of the 10-to 12-year average.
"I've been very lucky," said Nemeth, whose daughters are age 10, 12 and 14. "I've been able to live a normal life. When I was on dialysis there was no hope of children or travelling. It made the difference between living and not living."
But the donated kidney hasn't been functioning as well in the last few years, and in January her doctor told her she had only 15-per-cent kidney function and needs to start looking for a live donor, particularly since she is a type O blood type and can only receive an organ from a type O donor.
"It's stressful. I just wasn't thinking this kidney was going to run out. I want to get my kids raised and I don't want to be on dialysis but if nothing happens and no one comes forward at least there is more information out there to possibly help someone else," she said.
Nemeth's sister, Kerry Mortimer, said it's hard for her sister to ask for help, so she set up a website (www.jacqueline nemeth.com) and a Facebook page to do it for her.
Nemeth's husband, sister and brother are all A blood types and while her mother is an O, she was ruled out as a suitable donor when Nemeth was 17 because other tests showed they were not compatible. Two family friends, who are Os, went through all the tests to see if they could donate but they too were ruled out.
Because of her three pregnancies, and having already received a transplant, Nemeth explained her immune system has built up antibodies which makes it harder to find the right match.
Another option is for Nemeth to be part of the two-year-old Living Donor Paired Exchange Program run by the Red Cross, which operates a sophisticated computer program to find donor matches across the country. Participants in the program are patients who have a living donor but because they aren't the right match they can still get a transplant from someone else in the chain who has a friend or relative also willing to donate.
Mortimer is being tested in Ottawa where she lives to see if she is a match.
"The [Living Donor Paired Exchange Program] runs their database four times a year but it's a bit of a lottery. There's no guarantee. The last one, in June, 120 pairs went into it and 20 proposed transplants came out of it," said Mortimer.
"The ideal situation for Jacqueline is finding a living donor. It's a quicker scenario."
Nemeth, who was diagnosed at age 17 with kidney failure, lived on dialysis for three years before getting a kidney transplant at the age of 20. That kidney, from a 40-year-old woman who had died and donated her organs, allowed Nemeth to go on and have children after doctors initially told her motherhood wasn't possible.
Her kidney also lasted much longer than what most kidneys transplanted from a cadaver are meant to last: 25 years instead of the 10-to 12-year average.
"I've been very lucky," said Nemeth, whose daughters are age 10, 12 and 14. "I've been able to live a normal life. When I was on dialysis there was no hope of children or travelling. It made the difference between living and not living."
But the donated kidney hasn't been functioning as well in the last few years, and in January her doctor told her she had only 15-per-cent kidney function and needs to start looking for a live donor, particularly since she is a type O blood type and can only receive an organ from a type O donor.
"It's stressful. I just wasn't thinking this kidney was going to run out. I want to get my kids raised and I don't want to be on dialysis but if nothing happens and no one comes forward at least there is more information out there to possibly help someone else," she said.
Nemeth's sister, Kerry Mortimer, said it's hard for her sister to ask for help, so she set up a website (www.jacqueline nemeth.com) and a Facebook page to do it for her.
Nemeth's husband, sister and brother are all A blood types and while her mother is an O, she was ruled out as a suitable donor when Nemeth was 17 because other tests showed they were not compatible. Two family friends, who are Os, went through all the tests to see if they could donate but they too were ruled out.
Because of her three pregnancies, and having already received a transplant, Nemeth explained her immune system has built up antibodies which makes it harder to find the right match.
Another option is for Nemeth to be part of the two-year-old Living Donor Paired Exchange Program run by the Red Cross, which operates a sophisticated computer program to find donor matches across the country. Participants in the program are patients who have a living donor but because they aren't the right match they can still get a transplant from someone else in the chain who has a friend or relative also willing to donate.
Mortimer is being tested in Ottawa where she lives to see if she is a match.
"The [Living Donor Paired Exchange Program] runs their database four times a year but it's a bit of a lottery. There's no guarantee. The last one, in June, 120 pairs went into it and 20 proposed transplants came out of it," said Mortimer.
"The ideal situation for Jacqueline is finding a living donor. It's a quicker scenario."
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