Chicago musician Manny Rozelle writes song to help find kidney donor
A musician from Chatham has written a song to help find a kidney donor, a musical plea to end his yearslong wait for a kidney.
The waiting list for a kidney transplant in Illinois is thousands of people long. On that list is Manny Rozelle.
Rozelle has been performing and playing piano for more than 60 years, but these days he is physically exhausted by the song and dance of dialysis. His 17-year-long fight with kidney disease prevents him from carrying his heavy music equipment.
"I don't think I'll ever be able to—I don't think I'll be able to do any gigs anymore," he said, fighting back tears.
Rozelle recently created a song to search for a donor, hoping his music plea could end his yearslong wait on the kidney transplant list.
"I wrote what I was feeling," he said. "This is not the way my retirement was supposed to be."
If Rozelle's story resonates with you, but you're not the right blood type and not a match that's OK; his doctors at the University of Chicago Medical Center are able to coordinate a kidney transplant chain.
Northwestern Medicine does the same sort of organ swap, where the non-matching kidney of one donor goes to another patient.
Registering to be an organ donor after you die can also save lives. Experts say more than 100,000 people are in need of organ donations in the U.S., and more than 90,00 of them are waiting for kidneys.
"I decided I was going to have to get the word out to as many people as I can about this," Rozelle said.
If you are interested in becoming a donor for Rozelle, email LDChampion@uchospitals.edu or call 773-702-4500.
