Still Advocating After All These Years

Last week I had a day of back-to-back virtual meetings with congressional staffers–plus one congressman!–to talk about the Living Donor Protection Act and kidney health in general. Hard for me to believe that this was my fifth such event. Unlike most of the others I’ve been a part of, this one represented a partnership of 22 kidney-health organizations–including the National Kidney Foundation, of course–led by the American Society of Nephrology.

The good news: The LDPA is closer to being passed than at any time since it was first introduced in 2014.

The bad news: With Congress adjourning soon, if it doesn’t make it across the finish line now, we’ll have to start all over in the next session of Congress. (That thought is not only depressing but overwhelming because of logistical issues that I’ll save for another post.) Consequently, our “ask” was not just for cosponsorship of the bill by those members who hadn’t yet signed on but for help from all of them to get the bill to the floor.

As I related here after one such day of meetings, I’ve come to understand what the trainers have told us repeatedly: it’s the personal stories that will stay with and move a staffer or member of Congress. They’ve had a gazillion meetings and heard all the appalling numbers before: that nearly 100,000 Americans are waiting for a kidney and at least 13 die every day because they didn’t get one in time. They know all that on an intellectual level. It’s not the same as hearing what it means for a mother to see her son grow more and more listless and depressed as he struggles through long months of dialysis.

I was joined by an impressive group of fellow advocates who represented an interesting range of perspectives: Brenda Johnson, from the Veterans Transplantation Association, who told of veterans struggling with kidney failure or having to fight with insurance companies to get life insurance if they donate; Lauren Drew, NKF’s very savvy governmental affairs director, who’s been my mentor for such meetings since I first became a Kidney Advocacy Committee member; Dr. Hostensia Beng, a pediatric nephrologist, who shared heartbreaking stories of parents trying desperately to find a kidney donor for their young child; and Dr. Gentzon Hall, a nephrologist/genetics researcher at Duke Medical Center (just down the road from me), whom I’d met last year when we were on the same advocacy team. He emphasized the dire need for more research funding.

The highlight of the day had to be our meeting with Rep. Gregory Murphy, a former transplant surgeon. He knows firsthand how transplant transforms lives, and he promised not only to cosponsor the Living Donor Protection Act but to do all he could to help move it across the finish line before Congress adjourns.

It’s soo close. C’mon, LDPA!

For related posts and information on my new book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website.