MILLER PLACE, NY — Miller Place resident Joseph Gallina is hoping that he will soon find a living donor who will help him in his pursuit of a kidney transplant.
Gallina, a 41-year-old security guard, was born with one kidney, but it is declining, placing him in Stage 5 kidney failure. He has been on transplant lists with NYU Langone and Stony Brook University Medical Center for about two years.
While he is not yet on dialysis, that may change soon, he says.
To compound the long wait, compatibility constraints, such as family members, who have underlying conditions that prevent them from donating, have limited potential matches in his pursuit.
"My blood type is B, which is rare, and I'm only compatible with my blood type, and O," he said of his blood type and the universal donor type. "I can't take anybody else's due to the Rh factor, which I can't really explain."
Over the last two years, he has undertaken a social media campaign, seeking help through Facebook and Instagram, but has received no viable donor response as of yet.
If the potential donor's blood type matches his own, there will be more testing.
"Then there's other things that the doctors would do, like I believe it's a CT scan and some other soft tissue samples," he said. "I'm looking for somebody who would be interested in testing, and will probably donate."
For more information, go to friendsofjoegallina.com.
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