{"id":15098,"date":"2023-12-18T10:37:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T15:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=15098"},"modified":"2023-12-18T10:37:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T15:37:57","slug":"new-york-man-receives-four-lifesaving-kidney-transplants-from-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/new-york-man-receives-four-lifesaving-kidney-transplants-from-family.html","title":{"rendered":"New York Man Receives Four Lifesaving Kidney Transplants From Family"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15104\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15104\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/mark-fenrich-kidney-transplant-credit-khou11-youtube.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15104\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/mark-fenrich-kidney-transplant-credit-khou11-youtube.png\" alt=\"mark fenrich\" width=\"768\" height=\"524\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15104\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">KHOU 11\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As many Americans focus on holiday shopping, 34-year-old Mark Fenrich is celebrating the gift of life, which he\u2019s received not once but four times. During his lifelong struggle with kidney disease, the New York IT project manager received a total of four kidney transplants from four different family members.<\/p>\n<p>Fox News Digital spoke with Fenrich and one of his surgeons, Dr. John Bynon, from the Memorial Hermann Transplant Center at Texas Medical Center in Houston, about how his kidney transplant journey has \u201cdefied all odds.\u201d He received his first transplant from his mother as a toddler at just 21 months old. He said, \u201cAs I grew up, my parents treated me like a normal child. They didn\u2019t emphasize \u2018that I had this looming thing in the background.\u2019\u201d When he was 12 or 13 years old, Fenrich\u2019s kidney failed, and he needed a second transplant. This is when he realized his condition was a \u201cbigger issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The second transplant came from Fenrich\u2019s father. He said, \u201cThen once all the fanfare around the actual event itself settled down, I just kind of forgot about it for a while, other than taking my daily meds.\u201d In 2015, when Fenrich was 26, he needed yet another kidney, which he received from his uncle. \u201cWe were hoping that would be the last one I needed, but it didn\u2019t work out that way,\u201d he said. In December 2022, Fenrich\u2019s third transplanted kidney started to fail. On Jan. 1, he started on dialysis, a treatment that helps the body remove extra fluid and waste products from the blood when the kidneys are no longer able to do so.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZbKR3LjOPxE?si=qwaTWhIuqkTQRsSf\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cI was bound to a dialysis machine three times a week, three hours at a clip. I joke that it\u2019s the part-time job that nobody wants, but you have to do it literally just to survive.\u201d Initially, Fenrich\u2019s transplant doctors in Houston were hoping the kidney would regain its function, but too much damage had already been done. The doctors determined that he had a\u00a0genetic disorder\u00a0called aHUS (atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome), which causes small clots to form in the blood vessels, blocking blood flow to the kidneys.<\/p>\n<p>His wife, mother and father put out the message to the extended family. At first, one of Fenrich\u2019s cousins volunteered but ultimately changed his mind once at the medical center. Ultimately, his other cousin, Stephen DiGiorgio, offered to donate. A few weeks later, Fenrich received his fourth kidney in April 2023.\u00a0 The surgery\u00a0was incredibly complicated, as each previous operation had \u201cused up\u201d a transplant site \u2014 \u201cso we had limited places to put a new kidney,\u201d Bynon told Fox News Digital. Another element of risk was that only about one out of five people who have had a previous transplant get a second chance at the surgery because they become \u201csensitized,\u201d the doctor noted.<\/p>\n<p>In Fenrich\u2019s case, the surgery was a success. He described working with the team at Texas Medical Center as \u201ca dream come true.\u201d A few months later, he said he is feeling healthy and strong. Throughout the process, Fenrich said he has \u201cnever taken \u2018no\u2019 for an answer\u201d and has advocated fiercely for himself. He said, \u201cI don\u2019t look at my kidney transplants as something that\u2019s ever held me back. Energy-wise, I would say I\u2019m better than where I was with the third transplant in terms of quality of life.\u201d He said he is thankful for the family members who have stepped up and\u00a0helped to save his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As many Americans focus on holiday shopping, 34-year-old Mark Fenrich is celebrating the gift of life, which he\u2019s received not once but four times. During his lifelong struggle with kidney disease, the New York IT project manager received a total of four kidney transplants from four different family members. Fox News Digital spoke with Fenrich&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":15104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59,16,983,12,607],"tags":[668,869],"class_list":["post-15098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-good-deeds","category-inspiring-events","category-inspiring-people","category-people-who-do-good","tag-family","tag-kidney-transplant"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New York Man Receives Four Lifesaving Kidney Transplants From Family<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"34-year-old Mark Fenrich is celebrating the gift of life as he&#039;s received four seperate kidney donations from family members throughout the years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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