JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Eddie Farhat has been visiting the Devita Dialysis Center for five years as he sits on a kidney transplant waitlist. As the years go by, it gets pretty discouraging, so he decided to take matters into his own hands by posting a sign on his car reading “In need of a kidney.”
“I just keep waiting and praying,” Farhat said. “They say 'stand by your phone,' and I keep it with me 24/7.”
Farhat waits on one of two calls, either from a driver passing by or a doctor with a kidney ready.
Thousands of people have passed Farhat’s sign on his car since he posted it in August. Out of those thousands, he’s received two calls.
“They wanted money,” Farhat said. “Asking what I could give them, and that, of course, is illegal.”
Farhat received his diagnosis of kidney failure after battling diabetes for years.
Now, the majority of his life is spent at work and in the dialysis chair.
The National Kidney Foundation says Farhat is one of more than 100,000 people on the waitlist. It says the average wait time for a kidney can be three to five years. In February, Farhat said he’ll be on year number six, and he said that’s really discouraging.
”I’ve talked with the nurses there, and they say it’s in God’s hands,” Farhat said. “So I’m just waiting.”
Farhat is ordered to be close to his doctors constantly. For five years, he hasn’t been able to drive more than 45 minutes away from the Mayo Clinic.
Farhat remains waiting blindly, as the donor list is confidential, and he has no idea where he is on it after nearly six years.
Donors must be 18 years or older. They must have normal kidney function and be free of high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and HIV.
If you fit the criteria, Farhat has a request, not just for him, but anyone on an organ wait-list.
”Please go get tested,” Farhat said. “Be an organ donor, I really, really believe in that.”