Stories

Mike’s Story

​My name is Michael Luongo. I was born with a birth defect that caused my kidneys to be irreversibly damaged.  When I was only a year old, I had life-saving surgery. My parents were informed that, at best, I would be starting my young life with 40% kidney function and, one day, would need a kidney transplant. My parents were also told that I would develop high blood pressure by the time I was 20 years old. In fact, I developed it by the age of 12.

At the age of 17, I developed a blood disorder. The acronym is ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura). This is when your spleen eats the good platelets, along with the bad platelets in your body. The first course of action is to try to resolve the problem with medication. In my case, this did not work. So, the next intervention is to take out a person’s spleen, which they did. This was successful. It resolved the problem. How this connects to my kidney issues is that, when you lose your spleen, the kidney is expected to take over the work of the spleen. Mine was already compromised, and this only added extra work that it struggled to handle.

As I got older, my kidneys continued to show signs of decreased functioning. I continued to take my medications and follow my doctor’s orders. At the age of 28, my nephrologist told me it was time to start thinking about my options. I decided that a kidney transplant was the best course of action for me. So, a transplant clinic was called, and an appointment was made. At that appointment, I was supposed to bring anyone who was interested in becoming a donor for me. The transplant coordinator took us through the process and explained what would happen. After that, potential donors were tested. Some people had to be eliminated for one reason or another. Eventually, it became clear that my best chance for a successful surgery was my brother-in-law, Shaun. We just had to wait until my kidney function dropped below the required % to perform the transplant. For a good deal of time, my kidneys kept dropping into transplantation range and back out of it.

In 2002, I developed food poisoning and had to be rushed to the hospital. I went from having kidney function that was too healthy to transplant to too unhealthy to transplant. I was immediately started on dialysis. The goal was to get me up to a healthy level to perform my transplant.

Once I was healthy enough, on February 19, 2003, I was given the Gift of Life. At 31 years old, I received a new kidney from my brother-in-law. There are no words that could possibly describe how grateful I am to Shaun for this selfless gift. He is a true hero here on Earth, and all organ donors and donor families are heroes as well.