James’s Kidney Transplant Story

Video Transcript: James’ Story

Kidney Resource Services – James’ Story

- [James] I think a man's supposed to provide for his family. A man don't work, a man don't eat. I love to fish. Just being on the water, there's nothing like it to me. I was at work one day and I got ready to get up and I stumbled. I got up and I fell again. So I said I better go to the hospital. That's when it all started with my kidneys.

- [Cherie] You hear chronic kidney disease and you automatically think dialysis. Dialysis has a time limit. It's not something that's meant to be forever. The option is a transplant or dialysis.

- [James] Scared, didn't know what to expect. Needles. I just didn't want to do it. I think I was worried about my job. Not being at work, not being a provider. I didn't know what to expect.

- [Cherie] I receive my members through the dashboard. These are assigned to me by predictive models looking for clinical risk factors. In James' case, our analytics picked up the diagnosis for end stage renal disease.

- [James] They brought all the equipment into the house. I was at work.

- [Cherie] He picked up the phone and he goes I have to start dialysis. And I was like, what? My clinical training led me to suspect that his new medication possibly played a role in the decline. I recommended to James that there was a different lab test that could be ordered that would give a clearer picture of his kidney function. And so when he had the second lab test drawn it truly reflected what his kidney function was doing which was still holding strong and steady.

- [James] She saved me actually from going on dialysis.

- [Cherie] And so you're working towards trying to secure a transplant, trying to find a donor as the clock is ticking down.

- [James] This young lady by the name of Rachel called me. Told me that she was a match. Everything went great. Rachel was great. It was just an awesome feeling. I was sick. I was really sick. So if it weren't for Cherie I probably would have been in the hospital or not here. I like that she cares, you know, she shows me that she cares. Every day is a sunny day to me. When I'm on the water and the sun coming up and I got a second chance at life, I say thank you and I just appreciate it. It's just beautiful.