Valpo mom in need of kidney transplant — again

NWI Times | Joyce Russell


Photo credit: Jon L. Hendricks | The Times
Valparaiso resident Jennifer Ray is hoping to have a second kidney transplant after receiving one in 1993.

VALPARAISO | Jennifer Ray is hoping for another second chance at life.

The 37-year-old Valparaiso mother of one boy is on a transplant list, awaiting a new kidney.

More than 92,000 people across the country are on a list with Ray, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Those 92,000 people are on waiting lists to receive cadaver kidneys â€" those harvested from people who have consented to donate their organs after their death. There is no waiting list to receive a living kidney, another alternative for those suffering from kidney failure.

"They do a great deal of advertising for cadaver kidney donators, but not for living donations. You're on your own to find a living donator," said Ray, adding it is difficult to ask family, friends or co-workers if they'd give up a kidney.

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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}

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