Auburndale mother returns to donor list

AUBURNDALE, Wis. (WSAW) - Alison Snortheim is a mother who’s been looking for a kidney. NewsChannel 7 has been following up with Ali and her hunt to find the match.

Last year NewsChannel 7 reported that Ali found a kidney. But in the last year, there have been complications.

“Anti-glomerular basement membrane antibody disease,” Alison Snortheim said.

It’s an auto-immune disease that causes kidney failure. But Ali had the transplant last September, and a year ago was when things changed.

“The kidney was damaged because of hydronephrosis,” Ali said.

That happened because the tubes that carry urine down to the bladder collapsed on her, but another problem happened back in February of this year.

“The kidney they transplanted into me was CMV positive, I was CMV negative at transplant. I was not on a high enough dose of the antiviral medication to prevent my body from contracting CMV,” she explained.

The only way CMV was able to be treated for Ali was to get off the anti-rejection medicine she had to take for the transplant.

“Because I was off the anti-rejection meds, my body did reject the kidney, but it was treated,” Ali explained.

But 99 percent of patients will have a rejection, but it’s treated with medicine. Which is what Ali did. “Because of the hydronephrosis and the CMV, there was too much damage done to kidney then, that the kidney died,” she said.

Ali then had the kidney removed in July 2021. Her sister Ashley is a living donor. Ashley made the decision to donate her kidney to Ali, thinking it would be an exact match. But, it wasn’t.

“I constantly think, what if I could’ve been her donor....” Ashely said.

Ashley’s kidney went to Baltimore. She said it’s up to the recipient to reach out to the donor.

“...and I haven’t heard....so I constantly wonder what if the same thing happened to them,” Ashley said.

Ali’s story is about raising awareness of the need for organ donations. Ali and her family stated that the pandemic made organ transplants even more difficult because they were delayed.

“It’s overwhelming, but there definitely needs to be more awareness surrounding not only kidney disease but organ donation, because unless you’re living it, you’re never going to learn about it,” Ashley said.

Ali is back on the deceased donor list. But, she is also looking for a living donor with an O+ kidney. For anyone interested in finding out if they can be a live donor or even possibly a match with Alison, visit the Mayo Clinic Website.

Ali also has a GoFundMe, click here to visit the site.

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