THE mother of a nine-year-old autistic boy from Enniskillen has issued another plea for a kidney donor to help save her son’s life.
Mary Dolan found out in June that Joshua has only one kidney, and it is working at just 17 per cent.
Almost six months later, he is still waiting for a kidney donor, and Mary wants to again appeal to the public to help her little boy.
“There are not enough people coming forward at the minute, unfortunately,” she said.
“Basically, anybody can do it as long as they are healthy.”
Joshua’s condition has deteriorated, and he is currently facing three rounds of dialysis a day, as well as taking 21 tablets daily.
“Only for he’s on dialysis he would be an awful lot sicker. He is only getting to school two days a week at the minute, and with them two days, he can’t even do a full day at school.
‘Tired’
“He is just too tired – there are no energy levels there at all at the minute.”
The next step in looking for a donor is to put Joshua on the deceased donor list, but due to dialysis a blood clot formed where the tubes are inserted on Joshua, so the family have to wait six weeks.
“They want to put him on the deceased donor list as a next step, but until the blockage is released they can’t do that, because if we got the call in the morning, he wouldn’t be well enough for it.
“We are still hoping to get a live donor.”
The Enniskillen lad’s life has been constricted to his home, hospital and school, but despite the tough times Joshua is still managing to put a smile on his mother’s face.
“He’s a great little chap. He’s always smiling away. He was in the hospital after dialysis, and he just started dancing to a song, so he is still a bubbly child,” added Mary.
If you think you could help Joshua’s search for a kidney, contact the Living Donor team in Belfast at 0289 504 3079, or 0289 504 0719.
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