After 10 years on dialysis, and simply days after the story of her lengthy anticipate a transplant was featured on “CBS Sunday Morning,” LaQuayia “LQ” Goldring, 35, has a brand new kidney.
Earlier than receiving her transplant, Goldring spent as much as 4 and a half hours a day hooked as much as a house dialysis machine.
“Day-after-day I get up, I am thanking God that my ft even hit the bottom and that my eyes open and I can nonetheless breathe alone,” she mentioned in an interview in January.
In her interview, Goldring described the challenges of life as one in every of roughly 500,000 Individuals depending on dialysis to remain alive, and detailed the uncomfortable shortcomings of care supplied by for-profit clinics. She acquired the therapy at dwelling and mentioned dialysis clinics left her with no management over her care, treating her like a “examine.”
A seven-month CBS Information investigation checked out how two for-profit firms grew into what consultants time period a “duopoly,” dominating the market nationwide. Critics have accused the corporations of prioritizing income over the care of sufferers on dialysis.
The 2 largest for-profit firms within the dialysis trade, Fresenius and DaVita, dispute these criticisms.
Fresenius informed CBS Information in a press release that the corporate maintains an “unwavering give attention to enhancing high quality of life, strengthening scientific outcomes, and lengthening the lifespan of these we’ve the privilege to serve.” DaVita mentioned in a press release that its “devoted clinicians persistently ship high-quality, individualized care in a posh scientific and regulatory setting.”
Lower than every week after her interview aired in June, Goldring acquired a life-saving kidney transplant by way of a residing donor.
On the age of three, most cancers induced each of Goldring’s kidneys to fail. She acquired her first transplant as a young person from a deceased donor, however when it misplaced operate in 2014, she had to return on dialysis.
In her marketing campaign for a brand new kidney, Goldring stopped at nothing — posting billboards in her neighborhood and turning into an outspoken advocate for these affected by superior kidney illness.
Then she acquired the decision that she was a match for a kidney transplant. By the top of that week, she was on the working desk.
“They requested me if I used to be scared or had any considerations, and I mentioned none,” Goldring informed CBS Information in a telephone interview. “God discovered me the right match.”
Courtesy of LaQuayia “LQ” Goldring
Goldring mentioned she plans to proceed sharing her story, emphasizing the significance of residing donations. Goldring’s kidney was from an unidentified man from Georgia who selected to turn into a residing donor.
“Residing and non-living donations saved my life,” Goldring says. “I wish to preserve spreading that message. Individuals do not have sufficient info.”
Dr. Malay Shah of the College of Kentucky’s Transplant Heart carried out Goldring’s surgical procedure, describing it as “completely crucial.”
About one-third of all kidney transplants carried out annually within the U.S. are living-donor kidney transplants. And Shah says living-donor kidney transplants have the perfect outcomes and do not require as lengthy of a wait time for the affected person.
“When a residing donor match took place, it was like profitable the lottery for her,” mentioned Shah.
Whereas Goldring has been again to the hospital just a few occasions since her transplant, her docs say that is regular with restoration.
A kidney transplant is the one possibility for sufferers to get off of dialysis. Of the half-million folks within the U.S. on dialysis at any given time, practically 90,000 have certified for a spot on the ready record for a kidney transplant, and 11 folks die on daily basis ready for a kidney, in keeping with the United Community for Organ Sharing.
“My hope is that extra folks will hear about [my story] and extra donors will come forth,” says Goldring.
