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December
2019
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Pratt Tribune: Sheldon receives kidney transplant

Sheldon receives kidney transplant

By Gale Rose

October 14 is a date James Sheldon will always remember. It was the day he felt good for the first time in 20 years. On that day, Sheldon received a kidney transplant and his life changed forever.

"Symptoms I’ve had for 20 years were gone the day I got my kidney,” Sheldon said. While Sheldon has had health issues for 20 years, he was just diagnosed with a polycystic kidney two and a half years ago. The ailment runs in his family. His grandmother, two aunts and one uncle all died from the disease. Sheldon received his new kidney from a living donor at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City. Finding the donor was nothing short of a miracle.

Sheldon, who is on the Pratt Police force, was in a kidney chain, one of 30 at the medical center, and his chain was extraordinary. His wife Beth tried to donate her kidney but it wasn’t a match. A woman named Cara decided she wanted to donate a kidney and went through the living donor program at the KU Med Center. A little boy, Wiley, was born with two bad kidneys and had been on a feeding tube all his life. Doctors struggled to keep him alive long enough to get a kidney.A man named Mark West wanted to donate a kidney to Wiley but was not a match. That’s where Cara stepped in and her kidney was a perfect match for Wiley. Then West found out his kidney was a perfect match for Sheldon.

Children’s Mercy worked with the KU Med Center to make the transplant happen.

 

Read the full story via the Pratt Tribune

Learn more about the Kidney Transplant Program at Children's Mercy