TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Tanya Guralny is looking for someone in the community to help save her life - by donating a kidney.
She's been waiting almost three years for a donor, but the road to finding a kidney was riddled with speed bumps.
"My nephew went to get tested for me, he was a match. But during his physical they found out he was born with only one kidney,' she said.
And six other donors were unfortunately not a match.
This would be Guralny's second kidney transplant. The first one she had in 2002 was supposed to last 15 years.
"The doctors told me at the time a cadaver kidney - which is what I had - would last no more than 15 years. So here we are in 2021 and I need a new kidney," said Guralny.
Her doctors told her she needs a living kidney donor so that the life expectancy would be much greater, lasting 30 to 40 years.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, 100,791 people in the US are waiting for a kidney transplant.
On average, 13 people die each day waiting for a kidney transplant. And more than 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month.
The average wait time to get a kidney is 3.6 years.
During that wait time a person goes on dialysis, an exhausting experience Guralny knows all too well.
"It's very tough. You spend 4 hours on a machine to clean out your blood, acting as an artificial kidney to clean out your blood and put it back into your body," she said. "So it's very tough to be on dialysis 4 hours a day, 3 days a week."
If you'd like to help Guralny, you can register online with the Cleveland Clinic. You'll need her medical record number, which is 30697430.
She said her blood type is A positive, so she can have A and O donors. She can be reached by email at tanyatransplant@gmail.com. She can be reached by cell at (716) 912-5037.
