Kennewick family heads to Arizona for a kidney
One Kennewick family has taken a creative approach to finding a kidney for their father and husband.
Nicole DeLaPena used printing and graphic design initiatives to create T-shirts asking people for the organ.
A person can live a healthy life with only one kidney, which is why many kidney transplants come from living donors. The tricky thing can be finding a donor who is a match with the person who receives the organ.
With this in mind, DeLaPena’s shirts read ‘I/My Dad Needs a Kidney, O Blood Type’, and included a phone number for Kennewick, WA.
Although her husband, Philip, was initially embarrassed by the idea of wearing the shirts and having his kids wear them, his wife could not be deterred. She got the idea after learning that a man in a similar situation wore a promotional shirt on a trip to Disney World. That man received his new kidney last January.
So far, Mr. DeLaPena's family members and friends have not been a match for donation. He is on the transplant list, but the wait can be as long as five years.
The family wore their shirts on a recent trip to Arizona for spring break, as they figured they would be likely to be seen by more people than usual while on their trip. There is no news yet as to whether or not an eligible spotted the T-shirts and made the call.
Nicole DeLaPena used printing and graphic design initiatives to create T-shirts asking people for the organ.
A person can live a healthy life with only one kidney, which is why many kidney transplants come from living donors. The tricky thing can be finding a donor who is a match with the person who receives the organ.
With this in mind, DeLaPena’s shirts read ‘I/My Dad Needs a Kidney, O Blood Type’, and included a phone number for Kennewick, WA.
Although her husband, Philip, was initially embarrassed by the idea of wearing the shirts and having his kids wear them, his wife could not be deterred. She got the idea after learning that a man in a similar situation wore a promotional shirt on a trip to Disney World. That man received his new kidney last January.
So far, Mr. DeLaPena's family members and friends have not been a match for donation. He is on the transplant list, but the wait can be as long as five years.
The family wore their shirts on a recent trip to Arizona for spring break, as they figured they would be likely to be seen by more people than usual while on their trip. There is no news yet as to whether or not an eligible spotted the T-shirts and made the call.