For the past several months, Brian's son, Chris, has been courageously battling end stage renal disease. Since October 31, 2009, Chris has been on dialysis 3 days per week, 4 hours a day. This is keeping him alive and he is doing fairly well on this treatment. As you can imagine, this limits Chris’ ability to be gainfully employed and impacts his quality of life while making him dependent on others. The family was told that his only real shot at a long and healthy life is to receive an O+ kidney transplant as soon as possible. But the wait list for a kidney transplant is years long.
Chris was born with a condition called Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis which resulted in blindness at birth. They recently learned that his renal failure is also a result of Leber’s. Being determined, Chris is currently studying to be certified as an Adaptive Technology Trainer to teach visually impaired students and Iraq/Afghanistan combat veterans to become PC proficient.
Chris has completed his medical evaluation at UT Southwestern Hospital in Dallas. However, due to the extraordinary expense of transplantation, as well as Chris’ inability to work, funding this life-saving procedure and the lifelong immunosuppressant medications that Chris will need is a monumental task. Despite having Medicare, Chris will have many uninsured medically related expenses that will need to be met out-of-pocket. This presents a challenge Chris cannot meet alone.
To help offset Chris’ uninsured medical expenses, a fund-raising campaign in Chris’ honor has been established with
NTAF (formerly National Transplant Assistance Fund).
NTAF is a non-profit organization that has been assisting the transplant community for more than 26 years. All contributions are administered by
NTAF exclusively for uninsured transplant-related expenses and are tax-deductible. If you are interested in learning more or in making a donation to the
NTAF, please contact Chris at
info@helpchrispadden.com. It should also be noted that a living donor's medical expenses are covered by the recipient's insurance.
I had the opportunity to meet Chris Padden at a Chamber of Commerce meeting recently and I appreciated his positive energy and attitude. This young man is not giving up on his life or his dreams. I share his story in hope that someone may have the opportunity to help Chris in a small or a big way. He is currently looking for a kidney donor and there are ongoing fund-raising events being held in Collin County.
But I am also sharing this story for Brian and his commitment to educating people on how important it is to think about organ transplantation. While it was a challenging decision for Brian and his family to make that decision for Kevin, they knew it was the right thing to do and that Kevin's gift could save someone else's life.