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Waiting for a kidney
A Long Island woman has coped with health problems for a decade and a half. Diana Perez-Miller's latest challenge is kidney failure.
SHIRLEY, N.Y. - Diana Perez-Miller is lucky to be alive. The Suffolk County, Long Island, resident said her serious health issues started with ulcerative colitis nearly 15 years ago. Since then, the hospital has become her second home.
"I've had over 300 blood transfusions, over 150 operations," she said. "Just never had a break."
She doesn't even look sick when you first meet her. But the wife and mother of three has been through more in her 51 years than most have in a lifetime. She takes about a dozen pills four times a day and was managing just fine.
But doctors recently diagnosed her with type 1 diabetes and stage 5 kidney failure.
Diana's immediate family would be the first to donate a kidney but, due to medical reasons, they were unable to match. She has joined thousands of others on a transplant list at Mount Sinai Hospital in hopes someone will step up to help her out.
"I fought hard to stay alive not to have my kidneys take me out in the end," she said.
Diana is trying to stay optimistic and gets by thanks to her family and friends who have stood by her side.
Mount Sinai's kidney donation screening