FACEBOOK
Jonathan Daniels 66
In 2010 , I started having issues with my sinuses . I couldn ’ t hear well . I went to several doctors and it didn ’ t get any better . I started to lose my hearing because of congestion . Then I started having terrible nose bleeds . It was bad – almost a quart of blood at a time . The whole time , all I was told was that I had sinus issues . I went to see three different ears , nose , and throat doctors . They all said I should be on an episode of the TV show , “ House ,” because they couldn ’ t figure out what was wrong . Finally , I lost my hearing completely , and a series of things started to go wrong with my body . I had terrible mouth sores and couldn ’ t eat properly . Everything tasted like metal polish . It got worse . One night , I went to bed with a terrible pain in my back . When I woke up , I couldn ’ t walk . A couple nights later , I had a sensation in my arm that felt like someone was squeezing it . Then I lost use of three of my fingers . About three nights later , the same thing happened with the other arm . I went for some brain scans . To do a brain scan , you have to stay very still . I couldn ’ t do that , so they didn ’ t get any good images . On November 4th 2010 , I told my wife to call the doctor because I wasn ’ t feeling right . She did , and we went down to the hospital . Again , the doctor didn ’ t know what was wrong . But this time , he found that my potassium level was at a fatal level . I asked him what it meant . He said , “ If you eat a banana , it will probably kill you . And if you would have waited one more day to come in , you wouldn ’ t have made it .” He admitted me to the hospital , and put me onto dialysis immediately . About a week later , I was still in the hospital . They called my wife and told her they thought they had discovered what I had . They said it was a very rare immune disease that only 1 in 30,000 people get . My wife asked if they could cure me . They said , “ We can try .” I was in ICU for about 5 weeks , and stayed on dialysis for almost 3 years . When you ’ re on dialysis , one day you feel better and the next you feel awful . If it wasn ’ t for my wife , I don ’ t think I would have made it through . I felt like I didn ’ t want to let her down . I never worried if I was going to die , although they did stress to me how ill I was . Gradually , my hearing began to come back with the high dosage of medication they had me on . They told me I needed to get my kidney replaced . I was on a waiting list for 3 hospitals for a new kidney . 14 people die every day because they don ’ t get a kidney . Knowing that , you start to get desperate . I read a story that a young girl ’ s father needed a kidney , so she posted on Facebook about it . Within a month , three people stepped up to donate one . Complete strangers . I mentioned it to my family , and they weren ’ t sure about posting on Facebook . So , I went to see the minister at my church and told him about the idea . We did it , and two people wrote back . One was a girlfriend of my daughter ’ s . I just couldn ’ t accept . Then an email from a man in LA came through . All he wrote was , “ How do I get tested ?”
His name was Jim . He found me after a friend of his had liked the post . A few months later , he came to Miami so we could get tested to see if we were a match . He told me that when he was a little boy , he would go visit his grandmother all the time with his best friend and they would hang out and play at her house . Little did he know , his grandma was fighting her own battle with kidney disease . Through the kindness of a stranger , Jim kept his grandmother . That was why he wanted to donate his kidney . Jim told me that his sister called him when she found out what he was doing . “ I heard you donated your kidney to someone ,” she said . “ That ’ s amazing . I just wish you had told me first . A very good friend of mine ’ s husband needs a kidney . His name is Jonathan Daniels .“ “ That ’ s exactly who I ’ m donating my kidney to ,“ Jim said . She couldn ’ t believe it . By coincidence , she had worked with my wife for 3 and a half years . After the tests , Jim called me and said , “ I have bad news . The doctor told me that under no circumstances can I ever donate an organ .“ It was a shock . This man was very fit and in great health . I thought they must have found something in his health that could affect him negatively if he went through with donating an organ . The fact that he found out sooner was better . “ Don ’ t worry ,” I said . “ We tried . Now you need figure out what ’ s wrong with you and find out what you need to do to get healthy .” He called the hospital back , and they brought him in for more tests . It took the hospital over a month to get us results . Finally , he called me again and told me he had good news . Apparently , the day he took the initial tests , he was in the process of moving and had been lifting heavy stuff . He must have gotten his heart rate up , which caused the results that made the doctors tell him he couldn ’ t donate an organ . We found out he was a match , and we set a date . Aug 18th , we would go into surgery . The doctors all came around to prepare . They asked me a series of questions . Everything was going great . It was very cold in the room . I had a blanket with me , so I went to pull the blanket over my legs . One of the doctors noticed that there was something that looked like a pimple on the inside of my leg . He immediately said , “ We ’ re canceling the procedure .“ It was an ingrown hair , but if they would have gone ahead , it could have killed me in a matter of days . When your body is receiving a new organ , it ’ s foreign . If you have the slightest thing wrong with your body , it may start attack the new organ . Something so small could have killed me . It ’ s amazing . A week later , we got rid of the ingrown hair and proceeded with the transplant . It was a success . I still keep in contact with Jim . He is definitely one of my angels on earth .