ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
National Donate Life Month, which takes place in April, is all about organ donors and volunteers.
But the process of donating an organ isn’t always easy. Especially for people who are waiting for a very important wish to come true.
Many people’s dreams have come true thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. That includes New Mexico, where a dog was given to Isabella Pishyar, who is 20 years old, in 2022.
Captain Hook is the name of her dog, and Pishyar has called it “a great light in her marathon.”
In 2018, she was taken to the hospital right away because her kidneys were failing. A rare inflammatory disease was found to be the cause.
Pishyar lost the ability for both of her kidneys to work because of this. She had to start kidney dialysis because of this, a process that gets rid of extra fluid and waste.
Because of this, she was able to get help from Make-A-Wish and may have found her gift match just two years later. Because he had new hope, Pishyar had surgery to get a new organ.
But her body didn’t accept the kidney. KOAT talked to transplant surgeon Dr. Shelly Wilson, who said that New Mexico has a big need for organ donations.
“In the state of New Mexico itself, there’s several hundred and that’s just people who are actively being considered for transplant,” he said. “There’s still a high, high number of patients who are in the process of being worked up for a transplant.”
Doctors have told Pishyar that a living organ donor is most likely to work better and could be done much faster next time. This is because of how organ gifts are handled.
“If you have a living donor, your position on the list doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s someone donating directly to you for your benefit so it’s a very scheduled, very timed surgery so there’s very little, to no wait time.”
Pishyar is currently getting dialysis three times a week, for a total of twelve hours each time.
This works with her plan since she works at a store and studies computer science at Central New Mexico University.
Through all of life’s ups and downs, Pishyar hopes that Hook will always be by her side.
“He knows like when I have to leave early, we have to go take me to dialysis,” he said. “Then when I come back, I just don’t feel kinda good, I have to sleep or anything and he just comes right next to me, makes sure that I’m okay.”
Pishyar is still waiting to hear if her mother is an organ match.
