Hello, welcome to Jose’s fundraising page. For those of you who don’t know, Jose is my uncle and I want to share a bit of his story with you. In January of 2013, a routine visit to his general physician turned out to be the start of a most life-changing journey. At only 26 years old at the time, he was diagnosed with stage 4 chronic kidney disease. This later advanced to stage 5, which is the last and final stage of progression, ultimately leading to complete kidney failure. The road from diagnosis to current day has included countless medications, injections, 8 years of 4 hour dialysis 4x/week waiting for a compatible kidney donor. Luckily in late December, he was blessed to have found somebody who was compatible and doctors were able to successfully perform a kidney transplant.
Jose is a person with great moral character and an amazing work ethic. He never stopped working when diagnosed with this disease. He was able to save up some money, but due to the pandemic he was considered high risk and could no longer work causing him to run out of funds. The transplant process is long, complicated, and costly with escalating physician visits and labs leading up to the transplant and the overwhelming care post-transplant.
Here are some of the costs pre/post surgery:
- Pre-transplant evaluations and testing
- Extensive dental work (required for cardiac clearance)
- The surgery itself (including surgeons and operating staff fees and anesthesia)
- Time spent in ICU
- Post-Op physical therapy and rehab
- Anti-rejection medications (mandatory for the rest of his life totalling up to $2,500 per month)
- Numerous (3/wk first month alone) post-op doctors visits and ongoing treatment
- Transplantliving.org has estimated the total costs per person for a kidney transplant can add up to $260,000 for someone with no insurance like Jose.
Jose has never relied on anyone for financial aid, but this time around he is in great need of help and has asked for your support. We would greatly appreciate any help that you might be able to provide. Your donation can help diminish the weight of financial burdens and help him on a healthy recovery and life. However, we understand that this has been a very difficult time for many of us and if you are not able to assist please share with friends and family through all your social media platforms as it would be of equal help. Thank you everyone!
