Man takes search for second kidney donor to social media

By REG CHAPMAN

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Sean Lofton is struggling to find someone to give him a kidney.

“Going through this, you think about, ‘Am I going to wake up tomorrow,'” Sean Lofton said. “My life depends on it.”

Sean Lofton suffered in silence before taking his fight to live to social media in hopes of finding a donor.

“It’s times that I feel like I can’t make it, and I think about my grandkids. I think about my kid. I think about my wife, and I’ll be like, ‘I’ve got to get up,'” Sean Lofton said.

Sean Lofton has been down this road before. His wife, Tiana, donated her kidney to him more than 16 years ago.

“Right now, I’m at the end of this kidney that I have already,” Sean Lofton said.

According to Vanessa Humphreville, Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota, someone with blood type O, which Sean Lofton has, can have a waiting period of five to seven years for a kidney.

After connecting with the National Kidney Foundation Minnesota, Sean Lofton learned he does not need someone with the same blood type to give him a kidney.

“If you are looking to donate to someone and we say, ‘Okay, you’re not a match,’ what you would do, is you would donate on behalf of them, and your kidney would go to someone that it matches and you would get a living donor kidney that matches you,” Humphreville said.

Tiana Lofton, a living donor, hopes someone out there has a heart to help her husband.

“I didn’t do it just because he’s my husband, I did it because he is a person and I want to see him live,” Tiana Lofton said.

She wants her husband to keep going, for his family and for the community he serves.

“Even though he’s in the condition that he is in right now, to this day, he still goes out. He still tries to help whomever he can,” Tiana Lofton said.

The Loftons will take part in the Big Ask Big Give Event on Aug. 10, where people looking for a living donor can come together and learn what’s needed to get them on the path to getting the life-saving transplant they need.

Click here to learn more about kidney donation: kidney.org/offices/nkf-serving-minnesota

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