Mother Desperately Seeks New Kidney for Dying 21-Year-Old Son

Jan 21, 2019 by apost team

Beth Webster, a 58-year-old mother, has been desperately seeking a kidney for her son that may die without it. Her Jeep Grand Cherokee proudly sports a sticker that is asking for kidney donations, and she’s doing her best to make sure that her beloved son has the best chance of living possible. Her son, Mitchell, was unfortunately diagnosed with the later stages of renal failure almost two years ago.

Beth works at Massachusetts’ Framingham State University and adorns her car in all sorts of magnets and bumper stickers in order to further the search for a kidney donor for her son. She’s even contacted people she knows to see if anyone is interested in donating their kidney, and she made a Facebook page called Matching Mitchell in order to get a further reach when looking for a matching donor.

They’ve made flyers to hand out around Massachusetts, and they’re doing everything that they can to ensure that Mitchell is able to live to see another day.

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In the small area where they live, there has been a lot of talk about finding a donor for Mitchell. Beth often finds notes on her Jeep with sympathizing stories or of people sharing their own experiences with donations. However, no matter what Beth has done to secure a donor, they are still unable to find one.

Beth realizes that it’s hard to find someone willing to donate a kidney, and that’s why she has tried every outlet possible in order to secure a new kidney for her son. However, the flyers, stickers, posters, and Facebook page don’t seem to be enough yet.

Beth and her husband Dean have three sons together. There’s Mitchell, his younger brother Ryan, and his older brother Aaron. These boys grew ups going to school locally. Mitchell himself graduated from high school and was in a technical program for culinary skills.

But during college, they noticed that something may be wrong with Mitchell as he was becoming ill and was having trouble making it through the academic day. Beginning in February of 2017, he started vomiting and still felt sick when he took himself to work.

Expecting to have a diagnosis of the stomach flu, Mitchell made a doctor’s appointment. They found that he had high blood pressure and they started to do testing on him which ended up in him receiving a biopsy. This is the moment when Mitchell found out that his kidneys were failing. His mother recalls that moment and remembers feeling shocked because Mitchell had never had any prior health issues. She was unsure of what to do and unsure about what was to come next.

To keep himself healthy, Mitchell has had four surgeries in order to place passageways in his arm to receive dialysis treatment that he attends three times a week. He recalls feeling exhausted after dialysis sometimes and feeling fine other times, but it must be a hard obstacle to go through. The family is under constant stress about their kidney search, as the 114,000 other people on the waiting list must be as well.

It's hard to imagine the type of stress Mitchell and his family are going through, but through it all, they don’t give up hope. The family feels that a donor will come to them soon enough to ensure a successful transplant for Mitchell. Beth told WCBV News, “I feel that to get one person, we have to reach thousands.”

Would you ever be an organ donor for someone that needs it? If you’re interested in becoming a transplant donor for Mitchell or others waiting for an organ, you can visit umassmemorialhealthcare.org in order to get started.