Single Mom Seeks Kidney Donor for Holiday Season

Meire Santos never believed she would be desperate for a kidney when she came to the United States from Brazil 25 years ago. But today, Santos is praying for that life-saving gift so she can lead a normal life.

Vital to finding Santos a kidney match is the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation.

“Although Meire is still able to work as a housekeeper, she is at Stage 5, which is end-stage renal failure, her kidneys are functioning at 10 percent and anything below 18 percent means she is ready for a transplant or dialysis,” said Jennifer Flood, founder and president of the foundation.

That means a donor has to be found soon.

Santos, 44, is a single mom, and she and her 10-year-old daughter Melanie live in Greenwich, Conn. Santos has no family in this country and has worked as a nanny, a housekeeper and caretaker.

Last June she began experiencing severe headaches and high blood pressure, two common symptoms of chronic kidney disease. Santos contacted the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation to help her find a match for a kidney transplant.

Flood and her two sisters, Heather and Cynthia, established the foundation in 2008. Over the years numerous celebrities have publicly supported the foundation, which in turn, has attracted donors. The long list of people wanting to help has grown, a list Flood said they are tapping into to find Santos a match. Potential matches have been screened in the last few days.

Based in Chappaqua, the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation started when the sisters’ father needed a kidney transplant within six months. As a nurse, Jennifer Flood knew finding a match could take years and time was against their father. The sisters decided to create a nonprofit foundation while reaching out to find a willing donor.

The Flood sisters made headlines because they bypassed mainstream medical routes and national waiting lists and used social media and Craigslist in an emotional appeal to help save their father. The response was overwhelming and the list of donors grew.

The unorthodox outreach presented problems with established protocol.

“Doctors and nurses we talked to wouldn’t accept donors who weren’t from their pool,” Flood recalled. “They wanted to use our donors in their pool. We went from hospital to hospital asking if they would take our donors.”

Many hospitals refused to transplant kidneys from donors who weren’t relatives or a spouse, but that didn’t deter the sisters. While holding down their regular jobs, they kept posting ads every day in cities across the country. Finally, a woman from Monterey, Calif. responded to an ad on Craigslist and was a match.

“She’s the one who saved our dad,” Flood said.

Today, the practice of altruistic kidney transplants, which is donating a kidney to an unknown recipient, is widely accepted.

Celebrities publicly supporting the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation include Dolly Parton, who produced a fundraising video, and Jon Bon Jovi, who performed at the Tarrytown Music Hall in 2018 for a sold-out foundation fundraiser.

According to the federal Health Resources & Services Administration, kidneys are the organ in highest demand in the U.S. Of the more than 100,000 people waiting for transplants, 60 percent are minorities.

“There’s definitely barriers for minorities and we want to break those barriers down,” Flood said.

The foundation charges a one-time patient membership fee of $10,000 to cover the cost of running the foundation, which exists solely on donations. In Santos’s case, three families she used to work for paid for her membership. Currently, Santos is registered for a transplant at Yale New Haven Hospital.

The total cost for kidney transplants averaged around $442,500 in 2020. Transplants are covered by recipients’ medical insurance, and if donors are eligible, they can receive a grant from the National Donor Assistance Program.

The foundation has a record of success. On May 10 of this year the foundation celebrated its 13^th successful transplant, bringing the donor and recipient together from across the country. Currently, the foundation has four participants in need of a kidney, including Santos.

For the Flood sisters, keeping the foundation going is a labor of love. Jennifer Flood, an elementary school nurse, does most of the donor matching while Cynthia helps with marketing and Heather, a psychologist, interacts with patients.

The ultimate goal is to build a special wellness center with staff to match donors with recipients and provide nutritional and psychological counseling as part of a support team.

“We’re seeing a lack of services at hospitals where donors aren’t called back,” Flood said. “We are advocates for donors and recipients and can walk them through the process.”

The Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation will be outside Chappaqua Wine & Spirits this Friday, Dec. 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. as part of “Wine Around Town,” a free wine tasting and shopping event in Chappaqua. Check in is at 15 King St.

For more information about the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation, visit https://floodsisterskidneyfnd.org.