He Married His Kidney Donor. But Now, He Needs Another Kidney

Kyle Froelich’s first search for a donor kidney ended in a fairy tale romance. In 2010, Chelsea Clair decided to give her kidney to Froelich—a man she’d never met—after hearing through a mutual friend that both of his were failing. The pair began seeing each other every day as Clair went through the donor testing process and eventually started dating after the transplant was complete. Kyle’s health returned, and they got married three years later, making headlines across the country. Now, however, the Indiana couple is back in the news for a less celebratory reason: the kidney Chelsea donated is failing. If Kyle doesn’t get a new one within the next year, he says, he’ll be forced to go on dialysis. “We’ve done it before. You have to stay optimistic,” Kyle, 28, says of his second search. “I don’t ever worry about it. I just have faith that it’s going to happen. When it happens, it happens.” The first time around, it happened thanks to Chelsea. At age 12, Kyle was diagnosed with a condition that causes an antibody to collect in his kidneys, resulting in inflammation that makes it difficult for his organs to filter waste products from his blood. By 19, Kyle was in desperate need of a transplant. He began looking for a donor among family and friends, but his type O blood made it difficult to find the right match. Dozens of his loved ones were tested, but none was the right fit. “I’d ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized medicine Source Type: news