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Kidney Needed for Laila Pettigrew
19 April 2012

BISMARCK (UTN) - Nine-year-old Laila Pettigrew needs a kidney.

      Laila attended the Child Development Centers and was in kindergarten and first grade at Theodore Jamerson Elementary School on the United Tribes Campus.

      Laila is now in the third grade in Omaha, Nebraska. She had one cyst-filled kidney removed when she was a baby and now the remaining one is failing.

      Her parents, Elisha Yellow Thunder, a UTTC Tribal Environmental Science graduate and Jeremy Pettigrew, an Art/Art Marketing grad (both Oglala Tribe), have been tested and rejected as potential donors, along with eight other relatives.

      Writer Bob Glissmann met Laila and her parents and wrote a story for the Omaha World-Herald about the search for a kidney for Laila.

      Read the story here: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120417/NEWS01/704189909

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Giving up a kidney

• People can live normal lives with only one kidney
• When the kidney is removed, the single normal kidney will increase in size
• National medical groups have suggested that people with one kidney avoid sports that involve higher risks of heavy contact or collision
• Living donation does not change life expectancy, and does not appear to increase the risk of kidney failure
• Pregnancy is possible after donation but usually is not recommended for at least six months after the surgery
• Some branches of military service, police and fire departments will not accept individuals who have only one kidney

Source: Omaha World-Herald, National Kidney Foundation

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