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Brandon Tellawy of Parsippany has been enduring daily dialysis treatments after he was diagnosed with kidney failure last year.
Tellawy, who grew up in Kinnelon, was forced to put his pursuit of pharmacology on hold to keep up with his intensive treatment, which requires four nightly cycles of fluid to be pumped through his abdomen, Daily Record reports.
Tellawy awaits a kidney transplant, and while his O-negative blood type makes him a universal donor, the same can’t be said when it comes to the type of kidney he needs.
"You're pretty much just managing symptoms until you can get a transplant," he said. "It sucks."
Unfortunately, the wait could take years — Dr. Francis Wang, the chief of renal and pancreas transplant division at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, said the hospital has list of around 100,000 patients seeking kidney donors.
In the meantime, family friend Ashley Gardenier, 33, is working with NJ Sharing Network ambassador Donna Tissot, who participates in social media advocacy work to help those in needs of a donor.
“You need to have the attitude that I’m going to save that person’s life,” said Tissot. “It’s hard to get donors, but we get very lucky.”
Gardenier has even made a Facebook page to share Tellwy's story and raise awareness. The page, called "Brandon Needs A Kidney," documents Tellawy's daily life on dialysis.
"Brandon is attached to a tube for eight to nine hours a day while solutions filter his body to keep him alive," Gardenier wrote in one post. "He takes a total of seven pills a day and has 40 boxes of solution delivered to his house every month."
Tissot is prioritizing living donors, which Wang said comprise about one-third of the approximate 20,000 yearly transplants. The screening process takes less than two months, and recipients that receive from living donors typically have better long-term success.
“We’re on our way, and I feel really good about it,” said Tissot. “He’s a young guy with a great future.”
To see if you qualify as a donor, visit the Saint Barnabas Medical Center Living Donor Institute and include Tellawy's name on the form.
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