CT State Rep. Battling Kidney Failure, Seeks Living Donor

MANCHESTER, CT — State Rep. Jeff Currey has a different kind of wish for his birthday this year – he’s hoping for a new kidney. Currey, who represents East Hartford, Manchester and South Windsor, said he recently found out that he has stage 5 kidney failure.

“This means I need a kidney and I need a kidney ASAP,” he wrote in a post on Facebook.

Currey said he began the transplant process about a month ago and over the last couple of weeks he has been “poked, prodded, X-ray’d, and all that other fun stuff to prepare me for a surgery that I hope comes sooner than later.”

“The committee will hopefully ‘list me’ in the next week or so, but that could mean a 5-7 year wait... and I just don’t have that time,” he said. “And by that, I mean it’s a race against the clock to start dialysis. It’s a shock that I’m not already there, given what my levels are, but because I’m healthy otherwise, my body is chuggin along at the insane pace that it always moves.”

Currey said he needs a living donor, which has led to him asking for people’s “extra kidney.” He said it is the “strangest, most uncomfortable thing that I’ve had to ask in my 41 years on earth, but it’s the ask that I need to make.”

“I need a living donor,” he said. “Either someone who is a match for me or someone who is willing to go into the kidney swap program. I’m ok. Truly. And I’m going to be ok. I’m a huge believer in mind over matter. So being the happy-go-lucky, upbeat dude that I normally am, nothing is going to stop me from keeping on the way in which I’ve always been - super extra and then some!... Look at it this way - I made it through half my life with my original parts and now I need a tune-up to take on the next half. No biggie.

“In all seriousness, thank you to my friends and family who have been so supportive over these last few weeks. Your calls and texts (following your audible gasps lol) have meant the world. I’m extremely privileged to have the wide net to cast on this and knowing that many of you have already started the testing process gives me hope that we’re gonna get this done sooner than anyone could have imagined. Keep throwin’ that good juju into the universe and find me that match!!! Love you all!”

A website has been launched to help Currey find a new kidney… aptly titled Get Jeff A Kidney. For more information on the kidney transplant program at Hartford Hospital and who to contact if you’re interested, visit the website here.

“Please share and talk amongst your friends/family,” Currey said. “As the great philosophers, TLC, once said: I ain’t too proud to beg.”

Read Currey's full post on Facebook here.

Currey also talked about his situation during an interview on The River 105.9. Listen to it here.