Nick Mangold Needs a Kidney Transplant. Here’s How Living Donation Can Help.

Former New York Jets center Nick Mangold, recently announced he’s battling chronic kidney disease (CKD). Diagnosed with a genetic defect in 2006, Mangold is now on dialysis and searching for a living donor. With no eligible family members, he has turned to social media for help, bringing national attention to the urgent need for living kidney donors.

Chronic kidney disease often develops silently until the disease is advanced. It impairs the kidneys’ ability to filter waste and regulate essential functions like blood pressure, red blood cell production, and fluid balance. Without intervention, CKD can lead to end-stage kidney failure, which can be fatal without dialysis or a transplant.

The Miami Transplant Institute (MTI), an affiliation between Jackson Health System and UHealth – University of Miami Health System, runs Florida’s largest living kidney donor program. “For the past four years we’ve combined medical advances and technology to provide the best care for our patients,” said Giselle Guerra, MD, medical director of the kidney transplant program at MTI. Transplant patients and donors can participate from anywhere in the U.S. or abroad. Even if a donor isn’t a match, Jackson can connect them with another recipient.

Additionally, MTI has combined surgical and medical technology to improve outcomes and recovery time. With procedures like robotic donor nephrectomies and robotic kidney transplant surgeries, this approach provides:

• Less pain
• Fewer complications
• Shorter hospital stays
• Quicker recovery

Mangold’s story is a powerful reminder that the need for kidney donation is real, and the solution is within reach.

To learn more, visit Jackson Health System’s Living Kidney Donor Program.

Image: Official Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Randall A. Clinton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons