Metro Detroit woman on dialysis awaits lifesaving kidney after heartbreaking loss
April is National Donate Life Month, and patients, doctors and organizations use this time to spread awareness of the importance of organ donation each year.
Despite a rise in organ donation in recent years, the need continues to outweigh the number of people who are signed up to give.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 2,100 people in Michigan are on the waiting list for a lifesaving kidney. Around 1,700 people are added to the list each year, and the supply does not meet the demand.
"Although the people of Michigan have been very, very generous with their donations, it just doesn't meet the need," said Silas Norman, clinical professor at the University of Michigan's Transplant Center. "And because that need exceeds the supply, people end up waiting sometimes a long time, upwards of four years."
Dior Chambers was recently added to the list. The 37-year-old started dialysis earlier this month and was told she could wait four to six years before she receives a lifesaving kidney.
She has been a diabetic since age 11 and was diagnosed several years later with kidney disease. Her health took a turn for the worse in 2024 when she was five months pregnant with her first child. That's when the unthinkable happened.
"I gave birth September of last year and we lost him after two days," said Chambers.
They spent every minute with their son, and he took his last breath on his mother's chest.
"The doctors thought that after delivery that my body would recover," said Chambers. "And it did not. My kidneys actually worsened."
She does dialysis at home through a port in her abdomen four times a day. It is a draining process, and she had to quit her job in order to undergo the rigorous treatment.
Dialysis is not new to her. Her father, Elijah Coely, passed away from renal failure while he was on dialysis in 2001. Her husband, Dominique Chambers, is also very familiar with the process.
Two years ago, he received a lifesaving kidney.
"(I'm) feeling much better," he said. "Lots of energy. Working again, finally. Now, I'm here to just help my wife get through all this because it's a lot. And I know firsthand it's a lot. So, helping my baby get through this is all that matters to me right now."
"It helps to have someone who has been there and now is on the other side of that," said Dior Chambers. "It's definitely more powerful and more impactful and more encouraging that there is hope on the other side of transplant."
According to Gift of Life Michigan:
- Seventeen people die each day waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant
- Only 3 in 1,000 people die in a way that allows for deceased organ donation. That's why every donor registration counts.
- Gift of Life Michigan had its second-best performing year in 2024. Last year, 533 people became organ donors, resulting in 1,119 organs being transplanted. 1,960 people gave the gift of tissue, breaking the record set in 2023 of 1,858.
- The best way to save lives is to join the 4.6 million Michiganders in the organ donor registry. You can sign up by visiting the Gift of Life Michigan website, through the Secretary of State or by filing your taxes.
Norman said kidneys donated by living donors have the highest success rate.
"The best way to receive a transplant is from a living kidney donor," he said. "And so, we'd really ask everybody to consider – if they think they're healthy and interested and can help somebody – to really consider contacting one of their local transplant centers to see if they can be a living kidney donor to someone."
"I am expecting and hoping for a living donor," said Dior Chambers. "And that's what I'm really praying and hoping for."
For more information about organ donation, visit Gift of Life Michigan.
