FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — A Fresno family is now praying and hoping for a miracle, a kidney donor.
Matthew Gomez, husband to Leslie Gomez and a father to six beautiful children is battling kidney failure.
“We are trying to spread the word to find his superhero that will save his life. My husband is the rock of our family, and we need the community’s help to keep him alive,” Leslie said.
He was diagnosed in January of 2021.
“On New Year’s Day, he wakes up and he says, ‘I don’t feel good, my chest hurts, I can’t breathe.’ And, I’m thinking lungs, that’s the first thing that came to mind. I was like ok, ‘we’re all sick with COVID. Can you take yourself to the hospital?’ He says ‘yeah, I’m fine.’ He didn’t even want to go,” she said.
She explains following the visit, the doctors told him he had a heart attack and on top of that, his kidney’s had failed because of COVID-19.
She says that moment, their whole world turned upside down.
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Matthew has been on dialysis ever since the diagnosis.
“They’ve told them it’s equivalent to running a marathon, so every time he’s doing dialysis, that’s what they say. It’s like his body is running a marathon,” she said.
In July of this year, she shares they had a close call when they almost lost Matthew during a spleen and gallbladder removal surgery in an effort to keep him healthy enough to find him a kidney.
He lost a lot of blood, but he didn’t give up.
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After nearly two years and a half, she says they finally got the call they had been waiting for.
He made it on the transplant list just days ago on October 27th.
For them, it’s great news even though they were told it could still take up to 3-5 years to get the kidney he needs.
Until then, they say with prayer and by sharing their story, they will try to help find the perfect donor match to keep the rock of their family alive.
“If you’re O- or O+, if you’re willing to donate a kidney or even if you’re not my blood type…there’s other people out there that need kidneys as well. I would be grateful, and my wife, and family, would be eternally grateful for a donation. Just to the get somewhat of a regular life, you know,” Matthew said.
His blood type is O+.
“You know, we have a lot of kids to see graduate. We’ve seen one and we have one this year. And so, you know, I’ve told them. I said sometimes I fight as hard as I do to find him a kidney. I said because I do it selfishly because I refuse for you to leave me with six kids.,” Leslie said, “We’re going to make it to for him to see all five of his kids graduate and walk his girls down the aisle.”
If you want to check if you are a match for Matthew, you can click on the link here to get redirected.
A GoFundMe fundraiser has also been set up to help the family during this time. Click here.
