Fran Dugan has been a substitute teacher, a volunteer with Mother’s Cupboard and the Brown County Literacy Coalition, and a child’s advocate in the courtroom. Now, she needs a help to help her continue to serve the community she has called home since 2012.
Dugan walked into the Brown County Democrat’s office in May, prepared to pay for an advertisement asking for a potential kidney donor to come forward. Instead, she sat down to give an interview for a story.
Dugan first discovered she had renal failure in 2003 when she moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After moving there from Norfolk, Virginia, she needed a new primary care physician. She had her blood drawn as part of the routine check-up and her doctor noticed that her creatinine level had increased.
As the kidneys become impaired for any reason, the creatinine level in the blood will rise.
“It should be under 1. I’m now at a 3.5,” Dugan said of her levels now.
Her kidneys are functioning at 12 percent. When she first moved to Indiana, they were functioning at around 25 percent.
In Baltimore, Dugan was sent to a nephrologist, a doctor who specializes in kidney treatment and disease.
She moved to Florida before moving to Brown County in 2012 to be closer to family and friends and be around the natural beauty here.
Once in Indiana, she began seeing nephrologist Dr. James Bolander with St. Franciscan Health.
“Kidney disease is not something you readily know about. There have been no physical symptoms for me. The only way I knew I had a problem was when they did blood work,” Dugan said.
An additional problem Dugan faces now is low hemoglobin, so she gets a shot every month that helps her produce red blood cells.
When she began seeing Dr. Bolander, he determined she was Stage 4 renal failure. She then had a fistula put in her arm to help move medicine through her veins if she is put on dialysis.
“He tells me it’s the best looking one he has ever seen. He probably tells that to all of his patients. He said, ‘It will be your lifeline,’” Dugan said.
“I feel like I’m in good hands, really, with him.”
If she is put on dialysis, Dugan would have to get treatments multiple times a week, which would deplete her energy.
“There are so many things that I’m involved in that I enjoy doing, and want to keep doing them. But if you’re on dialysis and you’re there three days a week, I understand it wipes you out, so that’s why having a kidney would be a much better route for me,” Dugan said.
At age 75, Dugan volunteers as a Guardian Ad Litem, at Mother’s Cupboard, and is a member of St. David’s Episcopal Church and their Outreach Committee. She also volunteers with the Brown County Literacy Coalition.
“Our church really believes in a lot of outreach and trying to help the community,” she said.
Dugan attended an education class for people in renal failure who are looking for kidney donors. At the meeting, a man spoke about how he placed an advertisement in his small hometown’s newspaper looking for a donor.
“He got 62 telephone calls from that ad. “I said, ‘Daggone it, that’s what I want to do,’” Dugan said.
She has also advertised her need in church and on social media.
“My family and friends, everybody knows that I need a kidney. People have signed up to be tested, and that’s what this person would do if somebody came forward from this article,” she said.
Dugan has gone through multiple tests to ensure she is able to go through the surgery if a donor is found.
For the donor, all costs related to the surgery would be covered by Indiana University Health Center.
The surgery is also done by laparoscopy for the donor, meaning it’s less invasive and won’t require as much recovery time.
Because of Dugan’s age, her doctor said she would not be a good candidate for getting a kidney from a wait list.
“He said, ‘If you get on a list and wait for somebody to pass away, you’ll be five to six years out. You’ll be too old to have this operation, so time is of the essence.’ That’s why he said you need a living donor, someone you know who is willing to do it,” Dugan said.
Anyone interested in seeing if they are an eligible donor can do so by calling the living donor coordinator at 317-944-4370. The coordinator will then do a pre-screening over the phone.
The thought of surgery doesn’t scare Dugan.
“I’m wanting to do it. I’m not scared at all. I need to do it,” she said. “I need to do it. I’ll have a better quality of life and be able to continue the things that I really want to do.”
She wants to avoid being put on dialysis if at all possible.
“Dialysis, there are all kinds of ways you can do it, it takes a lot out of you. It’s inconvenient. You could do it home, but if I had a kidney, I would just get the kidney and be on my way,” Dugan said.
Dr. Bolander told Dugan that being put on dialysis is really left up to how she feels.
“Because my numbers put me on dialysis, I feel OK. I said, ‘Well, what should you feel when you’re ready to go?’ He said, ‘You will have less energy, food will not appeal to you, your appetite will go away and sometimes food tastes funny in your mouth.’ I haven’t had any of that,” she said.
“The main thing is what I want to contribute to Brown County and make a difference to people in this area.”
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Call Indiana University Health University Hospital and ask for the living donor transplant coordinator at 317-944-4370. The coordinator will do a pre-screening to see if you could be a match for Fran Dugan.
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