DUNEDIN, Fla. — There are approximately 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the U.S., according to the Living Kidney Donors Network. The wait in some cases for a living or deceased donor is longer than a decade.

That’s the case with Joshua Tannen, a 34-year-old Dunedin resident.

What You Need To Know

  • The average time from for waiting for a new kidney can be 3-5 years, but for others it can be longer than a decade

  • There were more than 6,500 transplants made possible by living donors in 2021

  • Each day 12 patients die waiting for a kidney

Joshua’s mother donated one of her kidneys to him in 2002, but the transplant failed in 2011. He’s been in desperate search for a new one for more than a decade now.

“I just have to (get) dialysis until I get the call for a deceased donor kidney or get a donor match from someone willing to step up and get tested to see whether or not that they would be able to,” he told Spectrum Bay News 9 earlier this week.

The Missouri native has lived with his mom in Dunedin since 2018. He loves Pinellas County, and for the past seven months has been volunteering two days a week at Mease Dunedin Hospital, where he helps answer general questions for the public and also works in the lab getting people checked in for their bloodwork.

One reason why Joshua has had to wait so long to find a kidney donor is because of his own conditions: a previous transplant as well as having had blood transfusions. He’s on dialysis every night for ten hours.

He’s also been relentless on social media advocating for himself and his need for living donor. That’s what led Tampa City Councilmember Luis Viera to reach out to him recently and invite him to speak for five minutes at the Council’s Feb. 3 meeting.

“My mom did it,” says Tannen about the kidney he received from his mother. “She didn’t have any issues with it. She was back in the gym a couple of days after surgery.”

Medical officials say that there can be medical and psychological risks from donating an organ. The United Network for Organ Sharing (ONOS) notes that there has been little national systematic long-term data collection on the long-term risks associated with living organ donation. Based upon limited information that is currently available, ONOS notes that “overall risks are considered to be low,” adding that risks “differ among donors and according to the type of organ you donate.”

Joshua Tannen is on the waiting list for a donated kidney at Tampa General Hospital.  You can find out more information about the living donor program at TGH by going to their website.

If you want to see about helping Joshua, you can contact him at joshtannen@abcglobal.net