In 3 years, I lived through kidney failure, two organ transplants (kidney and pancreas transplants) and survived the West Nile virus. After 32 years of living with type 1 diabetes, my kidneys failed. I spent 7 months on dialysis when my only brother and hero donated to me his left kidney. My transplant team's full plan of treatment was to correct what caused the kidney failure--the diabetes. And so I had to be medically requalified for another transplant, and 18 months later I was paged to receive a pancreas transplant.
The fast paced life I once knew as CEO of an auto supplier was returning until, four months after my pancreas transplant, I contracted the West Nile virus. I was immunosuppressed because of the transplants and so I suffered a very serios case of the West Nile virus. I went from being Vice President of the National Association of Automotive Suppliers Scholarship Fund and presenting scholarships in front of 1000+ people to a speech therapy patient who sounded as if I had a closed head injury.
It has been eight years since my comatose state and surviving the West Nile virus. Today I've written a book about my experience growing up with diabetes and surviving 4 major health challenges (dialysis, kidney transplant, pancreas transplant and the West Nile virus) over 3 years. Read more at www.jlewiskemp.com