MILAN, Tenn. (AP) – Thomas Jordan, 58, spends more than 10 hours each week on dialysis. If he found a matching kidney donor, his whole life would change, he said.
Last year, both of Jordan’s kidneys were removed after years of complications from polycystic kidney disease, a disorder where fluid-filled cysts develop in the kidneys.
Jordan’s brothers, wife, sister, daughter, cousins and friends offered to donate a kidney to him, he said. However, all had reasons they could not donate, such as high blood pressure.
An Air Force and Army veteran who now lives in Milan, Jordan first learned he had the disease when deployed to Germany in 1986. He served in the Air Force from 1974-1978 and the Army from 1979-1992. The disease did not give him any problems until 2004, he said, but then started causing complications with breathing.
In 2012 he started dialysis, and the kidneys were removed last year. Each was ten pounds when removed, he said.