Waiting on miracle kidney

Jes Jaswal has spent his entire life in hospitals, searching for a one-in-a-million kidney.

Jaswal has been living without either of his kidneys for the past 13 years, receiving dialysis treatment three times a week, for four hours.

The 30-year-old was nine months old when he was given medication to melt kidney stones. That medication melted one of his kidneys and partially melted the other.

“I lived on a kidney operating at 50 per cent until I was seven years old. I then had to be put on dialysis and a transplant list,” he said.

A transplanted kidney ended up being cancerous and needed to be removed. Over the next nine months, he spent two months in a coma and had two rounds of chemotherapy.

Jaswal received a second kidney transplant at the age of 12.

“It rejected in 2005, due to a throat infection that ended up spreading to the transplanted kidney. The doctors had to remove this kidney as well,” he said.

Jaswal has been patiently waiting on a transplant list for 13 years – doctors say his chances are similar to winning the lottery.

“I haven’t won the lottery yet, so maybe I’ll win this,” he said.

His mother has been by his side every step of the way.

“I’m with you, I am always with you,” she said.

A trainer at Steve Nash Fitness World in Kelowna helped Jaswal recover after he broke both femurs and tibias when he fell during a seizure in 2012. He now walks with the support of a walker after spending five years in a wheelchair.

Jaswal is hoping someone out there may be a match.

“Maybe someone around Canada can donate me a kidney, because you only need one to live,” he said.

A GoFundMe page has been created to help support Jaswal and his family.