NJ Woman in Desperate Need of Life-Saving Transplant

If you had a chance to save a life, would you do it?

Today is National Living Donor Day.

There is a local woman who needs your help.

Bettiann Young is a 62-year-old former teacher and a New Jersey resident looking for a kidney donor.

For Bettiann, it's a matter of life or death.

Bettiann has a genetic disease that has caused her kidneys to fail.  Doctors have told her that she needs a new kidney.

She is currently on medication that is helping her for now. Soon she'll be forced to go for dialysis treatments, a grueling regiment that requires her to go to a facility for several hours a day, several days a week.

Eventually, without a new kidney, she will not survive.

All is not doom and gloom.  Bettiann is looking for a live kidney donor.  Receiving a new kidney will give her a new lease on life.

The function of a kidney is to clean impurities from our bloodstream.  We're born with two kidneys, even though our body only needs one.  A person who donates one of their kidneys can still live a perfectly normal life while saving someone else's.

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Potential kidney donors have to be tested to see if they are the right match.  Testing involves three simple blood tests.  You will also be interviewed to determine your fitness to donate.

There is no cost to the donor for testing or the transplant procedure.  Donating a kidney usually requires two to three days in the hospital and several weeks for recovery.

If you would like more information about possibly donating a kidney to Bettiann, you can contact Living Donor Nurse Coordinator Jennie Roggio at 856-796-9376 or jroggio@virtua.org.