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The Call
Ray Williams had been on dialysis for eight years. During that time he was also on the waiting list for a transplant. Then one day, the phone rang and he heard the words, "We think we have a kidney for you."
A mere 12 hours later, the 57-year old college professor was undergoing a three-hour operation. That special call—the one anticipated by almost 45,000 patients in the U.S. with failing kidneys who are awaiting a transplant—had finally come.
"Although I knew I had high blood pressure, I was in pretty good health and worked out regularly," said Ray. "Then one day I was taking a break from working on my Ph.D. and I fainted. I woke up in the ER with my doctor telling me that my kidneys had failed and I had to go on dialysis immediately."
Ray underwent dialysis three times a week, four hours a day, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Beginning in 1996, Ray's treatments took place at the Nashville center. There, man-made machines did what his kidneys could not.
Without dialysis, Ray and 260,000 others like him wouldn't survive. Dialysis keeps them alive and healthy, helps them manage their disease, gives them back some element of control over their lives.
For Ray, dialysis meant being able to maintain his daily schedule. Thanks to the assistance of the social workers and facilities across the country, Ray was able to travel without dramatically altering his routine until a donor match was found.
His hospital stay lasted only five days. Once home, Ray had to return to the hospital every morning for 14 days to have his vital signs monitored and to ensure that his body wasn't rejecting the kidney. Ultimately, Ray resumed his normal activities within six weeks.
"When I was first told I had high blood pressure, I was young and thought nothing serious would happen to me," Ray said. "The one thing I've learned through all of this is that when you find you have a medical problem, you need to get under the care of an expert doctor and facility and take the medicine recommended to stay healthy."
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