Dave Mackereth is in serious need of a kidney and pancreas transplant soon. He has been on the waiting list for these organs for three years but his health has since deteriorated rapidly. His eyesight continually changes whenever his blood sugar level increases or decreases. He also has developed neuropathy, a condition affecting his nerve endings. In November last year, he suffered a heart attack. As if that weren’t enough, there are weeks when he feels too ill to get out of bed. “I get sick and feel like vomiting, and suffer from diarrhea and get tired,” Mackereth said. “Sometimes I get sick three times a week, sometimes it is more, and sometimes I can go all week without getting sick. It is a frustrating battle.” Mackereth is one of thousands in Minnesota awaiting life-saving organs. As of January 2004, exactly 2,331 patient registrations were on the regional waiting list for Minnesota, North and South Dakota and parts of Wisconsin, according to Life Source Upper Midwest Organ Procurement Organization. Of that total, 1,176 people are waiting for a kidney match and 138 are in line for both a kidney and pancreas transplant; Mackereth is among this latter group. LifeSource statistics, however, do show a slight decrease in numbers. In 2002, the total number of patients on the waiting list was 2,348. Mackereth’s condition is the result of a 24-year battle with diabetes during which his kidneys and pancreas eventually stopped functioning. This is the primary reason his health has declined so much. As his condition grew worse, he had to cut down on his hours at work. He now works part-time building fish houses at King Crow Company in Kingston whenever he is healthy enough and receives a Social Security disability check every month. He is also on Medicare and a supplemental insurance through the county that takes care of his drug costs. The supplemental insurance, his wife Missy said, is helping them quite a bit financially. “Otherwise we were just paying (for the drugs) out of our own pockets, about $500 every three months,” Missy said. Work isn’t the only thing affected in Dave’s life. He has to follow a very strict diet to maintain his health. Only a limited amount of sugar is allowed, and he has to stay away from fried foods and anything that is spicy. He only drinks diet and caffeine-free sodas, and hasn’t had a sip of alcohol in 11 years. His digestive system doesn’t function as well as it once did. “For a normal person, it would take two hours to digest a sandwich,” Dave said. “For me it takes four hours.” Things looking up The future may start to look up for the Mackereths very soon. Two months ago, Dave got a call from the Fairview-University Medical Center in Minneapolis and was notified that he was next in line for a kidney transplant. One reason it is a long process to get an organ transplant is that the organ donated must match the blood type of the recipient, in Dave’s case blood type O. The way the procedure then works is this: when a kidney is found, the clinic will first contact the patient who has been on the waiting list the longest. If that patient does not get to the clinic within a two-hour period, the next patient on the list gets a call. In this scenario, Dave is second in line on the list and will get the call should the first patient fail to respond within the allocated time. But if Dave doesn’t get that call and his condition grows worse up to the point where he will have to be put on dialysis, there is another option. When Dave first needed a kidney transplant three years ago, fellow church member Dr. Dan Patton checked his blood type and it turned out to be a perfect match. So, if necessary, Dave will receive Patton’s kidney; something Dave is very grateful for. “He is my ‘blood’ brother,” Dave said. “We give each other a hug every time we see each other.” As for a pancreas, the waiting list is much shorter. Dave has been told that he will undergo a pancreas transplant within six months. “After that I will be (diabetes-free) and won’t need to take insulin,” Dave said. “But I won’t get back what I have lost, like my eyesight.” Support For now, Dave is waiting patiently and hopes for the best. What has helped him most throughout this rough period in his life has been his family and friends. Besides the constant support from Missy, their three children – Brian, 17, Megan, 14, and Kristina, 12 – are equally supportive and aware of their father’s condition, Dave said. Members of the community have also done their part. The Kimball United Methodist Church, Kimball Lions and the Kimball Fire Department sponsored a number of benefits for the Mackereths when Dave was too ill to work three years ago. “It helped me get through the bad times,” Dave said. As for his take on things, Dave said that he looks at everything optimistically. “I have a very good attitude and my family helps maintain it,” Dave said. “I’m not one to sit around and mope.”
