DISCOVERING A DONOR
CLOSE TO HOME A LAWYER WITH AN INCURABLE KIDNEY DISEASE FINDS A DONOR AND A TRANSPLANT INSTITUTE By Eric Barton Photography by Jerry Rabinowitz
Mike and Bekki Haggard
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Mike Haggard has a whiteboard in the office of his Coral Gables law firm that he uses to game plan upcoming trials. He bought a second one for a very different purpose: to list out the people who might be willing to risk their lives for him. At the time, Haggard knew his best chance for staying alive. He needed to find someone to donate a kidney to him, and he needed to do so quickly. A lot has happened to Haggard since. He found the donor he needed, had the transplant surgery at Tampa General Hospital that would prolong his life, and, in the process, learned just how important it is to find the right hospital to handle such procedures. All of this began with something simple—a bit of back pain Haggard said he felt one day in 2002. He got an MRI, and the original diagnosis was a herniated disc. Finally, the doctor asked if he had any history of kidney disease in his family. “Right there I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Haggard recalled. “All that family history came back to mind.” While Haggard was growing up, several people in his family were impacted by polycystic kidney disease (PKD). He hadn’t thought about it for years, but after he mentioned it to his doctor, tests confirmed he had it too.
ADVANCES
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