TO GIVE AND TO GET

Local lifelong volunteer is one of nearly 100,000 people nationwide waiting for a kidney

BY WILL MATUSKA

There are few places Jeff Blumenfeld hasn’t been. He’s traveled to the farthest reaches of the world, from Antarctica to the easternmost town in Russia. Most of his experiences stem from expeditions, like when he escorted media to an Indigenous village on Baffin Island, or from volunteer trips such as supporting cataract surgery in remote Nepalese villages.

But the expeditioner and outdoorsman started a journey into uncharted territory in April 2022. With only one kidney after losing the first to cancer, Bluemfeld’s remaining kidney was failing.

“I was in denial,” Blumenfeld says from a brown wingback chair in his living room. He couldn’t bring himself to tell friends and family.

Now the 71-year-old is on dialysis to remove waste products from the bloodstream. His life is tied to the treatment.

“Living on dialysis is very difficult,” says James Cooper, medical director at UCHealth Transplant Center. “You lose a lot of your freedom. It’s oftentimes hard to be employed and so many patients are living on disability because of the time commitments of dialysis.”

Since starting dialysis in February, Blumenfeld lives a constrained lifestyle. He hasn’t spent a night outside his home. He retired early. Weekly visits to the transplant center can take hours at a time.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s good there’s a thing called dialysis,” he says. “But it’s a real ball and chain.”

There are nearly 100,000 people like Blumenfeld waiting for a deceaseddonor kidney across the country, according to the National Kidney Foundation. In Colorado, patients on a list of more than 1,000 may have to wait five years or more.

Cooper says UCHealth may match recipients with donors a little faster than average nationally, but it’s hard to measure because waiting times fluctuate “quite a bit.” In some regions, Cooper says, the wait can reach 10 years.

Scott Ruth is an electrical engineer living in Evergreen who donated one of his kidneys earlier this year.

“I just wanted to do something,” he says. “I feel pretty privileged on this planet, and it felt like something I could do. And then when I looked into it, it turned into something I felt like I should do, because there’s not really a lot of downsides in my mind.”

‘IF I HAD THREE KIDNEYS, I’D GIVE TWO.’

Rather than selecting a specific recipient, Ruth completed a non-directed donation, which makes up about 3% of all living kidney donations.

He was “prepared for the worst” after surgery, but was surprised with how easy recovery was.

“If I had three kidneys, I’d give two,” he says.

Ruth says he doesn’t feel any different post donation, and still enjoys mountain biking with his wife regularly.

In 2024, he plans on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

“I don’t consider myself that special,” he says. “There’s people that have to live through dialysis — that’s just not a way to live.”

Last year Colorado saw a record number of kidney donations (471), which has steadily increased over the last three decades, according to the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network.

Typically, about two-thirds of kidney transplants are from deceased donors while the other third comes from living donors. Living donations have numerous benefits for recipients compared to deceased donations, including shorter wait periods and lasting longer once surgery is complete.

But there’s still a gap between supply and demand — the National Kidney Foundation found that 3,000 people are added to their wait list every month, while 14 people die each day waiting.

Cheryl Talley, director of communications at the Donor Alliance, says it’s still hard to find kidney donors. She calls it a “miracle” to have a living donor match with a recipient.

When matching a donor with a recipient, transplant centers consider things like age, blood type, urgency and distance. It doesn’t have to be a perfect match — many transplant centers offer kidney “swaps” when a patient has a living donor who is not compatible for transplant, or treatments, like plasmapheresis, that allow incompatible matches.

But since transplant centers cannot seek living donors, that leaves people experiencing kidney failure to find them.

Blumenfeld knows four people have come forward to donate to him, but they haven’t worked out. He says you have to become “the poster child for kidney donation” to find a donor.

“You have to work on it every day,” he says. “What did I do today to move one baby step forward?”

Despite feeling restricted by dialysis, Blumenfeld is still active by playing pickleball, fly fishing, skiing and spending time with his two grandchildren. He still volunteers with multiple organizations such as VoicesCenter.org, a leading victim’s advocacy group for those affected by the events of 9/11.

“Volunteering, for me, has been an opportunity to see other lives, experience what people are going through,” he says. “And maybe there’s a way I can help.”

If he receives a kidney, Blumenfeld plans to create a template for those awaiting kidney transplant, with the goal of getting kidneys to people faster.

“I can’t save the whole world,” he says, “but maybe I can save a little tiny piece of it through volunteer work.”

Visit kidney.org to learn more about kidney donation. Learn more about Blumenfeld at jeffskidneysearch.com.