Livonia councilman awaits kidney for needed transplant

Observer and Eccentric Newspapers | Ken Abramczyk

City Councilman Tom Robinson needs a kidney transplant soon.

Robinson needs to find a donor quickly as he is suffering from kidney failure as the result of a slowly progressive kidney disease.

Julie Robinson, Tom's wife, has set up a website (www.kidneyfortomr.org), asking for the public's help. Earlier this year Tom's sister offered a kidney and went through tests, but doctors did not want to use her as a donor. “We were told that in July, and it just devastated all of us,” Julie Robinson said. “It's pretty urgent. He needs a kidney.”

Robinson, 46, suffers from IgA nephropathy or Berger's disease, a slowly progressive, chronic kidney disease. IgA is a protein and an antibody that helps the body fight infections. IgA nephropathy (Berger's disease) occurs when too much of this protein is deposited in the kidneys. IgA builds up inside the small blood vessels of the kidney. Structures in the kidney called glomeruli become inflamed and damaged.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, one of the kidney's most important jobs is to filter toxic waste products from the blood, and the glomeruli play a key role in this process. As more glomeruli are damaged by the IgA protein, the kidney progressively loses its ability to clear wastes from the body.

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