Teen suffering from rare birth condition making desperate plea for kidney donation
By Stacey Sager
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LONG ISLAND, New York (WABC) — A teenager in Nassau County who is facing a critical health battle is in desperate need of a kidney donor.
Elias Manolis is a 13-year-old boy who works hard in school, loves his family and his brand new puppy Cooper, but life is anything but normal for the eighth grader as he was born with a kidney condition called UVJ obstruction, and since February, Manolis’ kidneys have started to fail.
“If I get a new kidney, then I actually can live a normal life,” he said. “On a weekend, I would normally go out with a friend, go biking, but as soon as 1 o’clock hits, I have to come home and do a catheterization.”
Manolis’ parents don’t qualify as kidney donors, nor do others in his family.
“To want to help your kid and you can’t, it’s very hard,” said Elias’ father, Nick Manolis.
They have been desperately searching for a live kidney donor.
“We just have a big decline. His kidney function is about 17%, so it’s serious,” said Elias’ mother, Margaret Manolis.
Dr. Lauren Castellanos, a nephologist at Northwell Transplant Institute, says the 13-year-old will probably require dialysis very soon. That would mean hours in the hospital several times per week.
The family is hoping for a live donor, since kidneys from live donors last nearly twice as long as those from a person who is deceased, and the teen is still so young.
Here are a couple of other things you may want to consider if you want to help Elias: It’s a relatively short recovery time, just two nights in the hospital, the procedure can be done laparoscopically, you go home and you recover, and then you get back to your normal life.
“We have donors who are marathon runners, who hit the pavement post-donation and are back at running, exercising,” said Libbie Blinkiewicz, a Northwell living donor ambassador.
The 13-year-old’s family is hoping potential donors realize it would be life changing for a boy with a winning smile who continues to believe in all things good.
“That person will be a hero,” Elias Manolis said.
“It would be his gift of life… our gift of life,” Elias’ mother said.
Doctors say they are looking for potential donors with type O or B blood, and a body mass index of 35 or less in order to find him a match.
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