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Patrick Gallagher, 7, of Scranton was born with a condition that destroyed his kidneys. The first one was removed shortly after his first birthday, the second failed completely in November 2010. Patrick received a life-saving kidney transplant at the Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey at that time but within 24 hours of transplant, he went into acute rejection. The rejection was treated very aggressively using new and experimental methods, but remained in barely controlled rejection throughout te time from the transplant until April of 2011.
Treatments have contined since that time with frequent stays in Hershey; at this time, his numbers are still high, which means that although he is stable at the moment, the kidney is still being damaged.
He is still heavily immuno-surpressed, and his mom has a full time job just managing the dozen-plus medications and over 20 doses he must take every day. She also handles his schoolwork (he is a student in the Agora Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School) and extra-curricular activities. He loves school, and even attended one live on-line class while waiting in the pre-op area at Hershey!
Needless to say, our finances are abysmal; I'm keeping food on the table, and keeping the lights on (by the skin of my teth), but copays, deductibles, gas and car maintenance do a pretty good job keeping us in the hole. Any funds donated to Patrick are kept separately and used strictly for his direct expenses.
Once again, we face a Holiday Season at the Penn State's Children's Hospital. We hope to spend Christmas at home this year, although it looks like we will be coming back to Hershey shortly thereafter.
Expenses related to the transplant far exceed my salary, and every single trip to the hospital costs many hundreds of dollars more than we can afford.
A transplant is NOT a cure; it is simply exchanging one set of symptoms for another, and a transplanted kidney has a finite lifetime;
The doctors will try to maintain this kidney for as long as they can, but inevitably, it will fail and another transplant will be required.
We ask for anything that you can spare financially, Your thoughts and prayers are especially appreciated
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