Jeff Hadley (left) is pictured with his wife, Connie.
Submitted photo
At 55, Buford area resident Jeff Hadley is in need of a kidney transplant from a genetic condition known as polycystic kidney disease that he was diagnosed with in his mid to late twenties.
Although he has been required to undergo dialysis treatments five days a week for the past year and half, he still works full-time at Lowe’s in Hillsboro.
“We’ve already done the process where his doctors said he needed dialysis and he’s going to need a kidney transplant, and we’ve went through that whole process Christ Hospital where they’ve got him worked up,” said Connie Hadley, his wife. “It takes probably close to six months to get all of your other health care issues stable and you’re well enough to receive a kidney, so that takes a while, and we went through that process last year and got him ready to go so if we got the phone call we could go, but then we had to start over again this year and keep everything up to date.”
She said he is required to have a cardiac and dental clearances performed annually and must ensure his blood sugar levels are not too high to remain eligible to receive the kidney transplant. Jeff has been diabetic since his mid-twenties.
Connie said it’s been difficult to find someone to donate a kidney for Jeff because many things can disqualify a potential donor. “We had a lot of people willing to donate, but we’re older, and a lot of our friends are older, and you can only take one blood pressure medicine,” she said. “Your BMI can’t be over 35, and there’s a lot of other stipulations, and people that were interested in donating to him were just knocked out of the running right from the beginning.”
She said Jeff’s kidneys have failed and won’t be able to regain their function. “There have been people who can live on dialysis for 15 and 20 years, but at 55 that’s not a fun way to live,” she said. “He’s got other chronic health conditions too, but he really has tried very hard to take really good care of himself the last couple of years.”
When Jeff began the process of gaining clearances for his initial review for the transplant list, some issues with his heart were discovered. The heart problems led to him undergoing a quadruple bypass procedure. “So, that was kind of a wakeup call, and then the kidney disease really kicked up after that because it was very hard on him systematically when he got the quadruple bypass,” said Connie.
Jeff and Connie were married in 2015. He has two grown sons, Conner and Nick, and two grown stepdaughters, Lilly and Jetta. He is originally from Greenfield and graduated from McClain High School in 1996.
“He used to be in Voices of Ohio, which is a choir based out of the Columbus area that would do shows all over, but he’s just not got the stamina and the ability to do that anymore,” said Connie.
Anyone interested in donating a kidney to Jeff Hadley can contact the donor transplant coordinator at Christ Hospital at 2139 Auburn Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45219 or 513-585-1427.
Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571.
