HOUSTON – Belinda Telsede was all smiles at the KPRC 2 Crawfish Festival on Saturday.
That’s where she met reporter Corley Peel. She told Corley the festival was a rare outing for her.
“It feels good to be out, but I had to keep my distance,” she said.
Telsede’s reality is taking dozens of medications and checking her blood pressure three times a day. She has spent the past five years in and out of the hospital battling stage 5 kidney disease.
“What I do to stay alive now is I have to do dialysis 3 times a week,” Telsede said.
Telsede has spent three and a half of those years on the waitlist for a kidney transplant at Memorial Hermann. Now, all that waiting went to waste after the hospital announced it ended its kidney and liver transplants. This comes after allegations came out against Dr. Steve Bynon, who is accused of altering transplant donor databases.
She said her family members were already going through the process to become her donors.
“I have two kidneys, but I have not been able to get the process moving to where I can get the kidney. I have a kidney from my daughter and a kidney from my granddaughter so why am I not receiving those kidneys?”
Telsede’s social worker was able to put her on the waitlist for Houston Methodist, but now she has to start completely over and is unsure how many more years it could take. She said when her daughter called asking about her donor application, she was told their paperwork was not there. KPRC2 reached out to Memorial Hermann asking about the possible missing paperwork, they are looking int our request.
“I can’t live in this bubble,” said Telsede.
Telsede said she encourages other patients to pay attention and find a doctor that will listen to them.