Man awaits second kidney transplant
Keith Haley was born with Eagle-Barrett Syndrome, a disease that caused kidney failure and required him to receive a kidney transplant at age 12 from his father, Jim Haley. In 2010, Keith found out he needs a new kidney transplant and is in urgent need of a donor.
Keith Haley is pictured with his wife, Jaime, and his daughter, Kassidy, 7. In 2010, Keith Haley found out he needs a kidney transplant because the first transplant he received from his father when he was 12 years old is now failing.
When Keith Haley was 12 years old, he received a kidney transplant from his father, Jim Haley. Years later in 2010, Keith found out he needs a new kidney transplant.
As an auto technician, Keith Haley is skilled at diagnosing things that go wrong with vehicles and then repairing them.
But Haley can’t fix what’s wrong with himself: He needs a kidney.
At least three times a week, Haley – who had to quit his job because of his health problems – undergoes dialysis while he waits for the National Kidney Registry to call him with the news that a kidney is available.
“I just want to get back to a normal life,” said Haley. “I need a transplant and I’m pushing for one so I can get back to normal.”
Haley, 34, of Burgettstown, was born with Eagle-Barrett Syndrome, a life-threatening group of birth defects that often includes severe kidney problems.
Eagle-Barrett Syndrome, also called prune belly syndrome, affects one in 40,000 births. Twenty percent of babies die before birth and 30 percent die from kidney complications within their first two years.
At birth, one of Haley’s kidneys was dead and the other functioned at between 60 or 70 percent – until he was 12 years old and it began to fail.
His father, Jim, donated one of his kidneys and bought his son at least 20 years because a living donor kidney lasts about two decades, while a cadaver kidney lasts about 10 years.
Like clockwork though, in October 2010, 20 years after the transplant, Haley’s kidney stopped functioning.
And his life has been on hold since then.
Haley and his wife, Jaime, an X-ray technician at UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh have tried to make life as normal as possible for their daughter, Kassidy, 7, who they adopted after taking her in as a foster child, making sure she attends her dance classes and makes play dates with friends.
His family and friends have organized a spaghetti dinner to benefit Haley and his family.
“He’s one of the most dependable, hard-working and honest people you’d ever want to know,” said Nancy Mastrangioli, whose husband owns Community Motors, where Haley worked. “He’s an amazing person and he’s very good at what he does. He wouldn’t let you know if he wasn’t feeling well and he would never admit if he was feeling sick. He would work until he almost dropped and he would never complain. His biggest goal is to raise awareness of the dire need for donors and to possibly get a donor. It really is upsetting to see what he’s going through. We just pray every day that he has a safe dialysis and that he gets a successful transplant.”
There are more than 80,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list, and the wait for a kidney from a deceased donor can be as long as five years, according to the Living Kidney Donors Network. The waiting list has doubled in size over the past 10 years, and about 4,500 people die every year waiting for a kidney transplant.
Haley was administering peritoneal dialysis at home until a fungal infection developed in the catheter in his abdomen in May (doctors said they were surprised he didn’t suffer a heart attack after his blood count fell drastically low), so now he is receiving treatment through a temporary tunneled hemodialysis catheter in his chest.
“It’s a lot of stress. Jaime wants this to happen as much as I do, and my parents do too,” said Haley, a 1996 graduate of Trinity High School and a graduate of the NASCAR Technical Institute. “I want to get back to work. My mom could retire, but she’s still working so that she can help me financially. That bothers me. I just want to get back to a regular life.”
A benefit spaghetti dinner for Keith Haley will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 25 at the American Legion post in Houston. Cost is $8 for adults and $4 for children ages 5-12. Information about the Center for Organ Recovery and Education and becoming an organ donor will be available.