LARGO, Fla. — The director of the Largo Public Library is in search of a living kidney donor, and city officials are trying to bring awareness to support the team member along with others in the community living with kidney disease.
Casey McPhee started off as the assistant library director for the city of Largo back in 2002 and looked forward to helping people in the community, a news release from the city explains.
Just three years later, McPhee gained the title of director. Fast forward to 2023, she's now battling end-stage renal disease on a "new journey of holding onto hope and finding help" from a living kidney donor.
"About eight years ago, I started having signs that my kidney function was dropping and having a family history [of it]...I recognized that this was something important, something I needed to get looked at," the library director explained.
McPhee's mother died of kidney disease in 1987. But the library director is determined to stick around for her son and family in the future after finding a donor, according to city leaders.
McPhee undergoes dialysis for nine hours a day, seven days a week and has been on the transplant list for three years. She's looking for help from a donor with an O blood type kidney.
This search for a donor comes as more than 90,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor – with the usual wait time being 3-10 years, according to the National Kidney Registry's website KidneyRegistry.org.
Back in 2021, there were two people who had stepped forward and contacted Tampa General Hospital to go through testing, McPhee explained on Facebook. While they ended up being a kidney match, neither were able to contact for other reasons.
But while searching and waiting for a suitable living donor, McPhee said she's thankful for all the support she has been receiving.
"I'm just so appreciative of the outpouring of support that the community has given and my team...has been really great to me," she said.
McPhee reminds people to pay attention to their blood pressure – explaining the use of some medications can actually cause kidney failure as well
"I had migraine headaches for years and used NSAIDs, Aleve and medications like that...and if you have a tendency to have weaker kidneys then those can negatively affect you possibly," she explained. "Always check with your doctor and be confident with what you're taking because your kidneys have to filter everything out of your body...
"It's definitely not something that you want to lose the function of."
Anyone interested in finding out if they're a match to donate can contact Tampa General Hospital at 813-844-5669 or Largo HCA at 727-588-5200.
