By writer to news.google.com
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Dr. Larry Yokoyama is not shy about telling anybody how he feels. Within the examination rooms and on native sidelines, the beloved native doctor was extremely seen, caring for his sufferers till he was recognized with kidney stones in 2000.
In keeping with Yokoyama, the laser remedies meant to disintegrate the stones ended up destroying his left kidney. Not lengthy after that, his proper kidney started growing uric acid stones. Quickly, the physician went into renal failure and required dialysis thrice every week.
With each kidneys getting worse, Yokoyama was positioned on the kidney transplant record.
That was about seven years in the past. As Yokoyama waited for a match, he suffered one other medical difficulty that led to a colonoscopy, which revealed one more downside. Dr. Yokoyama had developed colon most cancers.
Because of the most cancers analysis, the kidney transplant was placed on maintain. Yokoyama says surgeons at Cedars Sinai in the end determined to “carve out” the most cancers. They’d take away a big portion of colon by way of a ten inch incision in his stomach.
Setbacks had been nonetheless not carried out with Dr. Yokoyama. His bowel had been so broken by the kidney surgical procedure years prior that he ended up again within the working room. He remembers that the docs had been calling different docs in to take a look at simply how dangerous it was.
Whereas all this is occurring, phrase bought out about Dr. Yokoyama’s seek for a kidney. In truth, officers within the transplant middle advised Yokoyama to please ask native residents to cease calling. In keeping with employees, 2,400 folks requested to be screened to see if they might donate a kidney, a number of even demanding their kidneys be given to the physician.
By 2019, Dr. Yokoyama was again on the transplant record, however attributable to his blood sort, discovering a match was nonetheless proving troublesome. His spouse Kim needed to offer him certainly one of hers proper earlier than Christmas of 2020, however Yokoyama resisted primarily based on his understanding that the surgical procedure will be more durable on the donor than the recipient, and he did not need his spouse to come back to hurt.
Lastly, on the night time earlier than Christmas of 2020, got here the best reward of all. The household of an area organ donor by the title of Tammy had contacted the transplant middle, and her kidney was a match for Yokoyama.
The surgical procedure passed off throughout covid restrictions at 2:00 within the morning on Christmas Day, 2020, and Yokoyama lastly began to get better.
The Yokoyamas requested to satisfy the donor household, they usually have since turn into associates, with a bit of their liked one nonetheless alive within the physician.
Will probably be two years this Christmas since Dr. Yokoyama obtained his new kidney, and this yr he has been invited to journey on the One Legacy float within the Pasadena Rose Parade, the place he’ll be holding a floragraph of Tammy.
23ABC will probably be sharing updates to this story as we get nearer to the brand new yr.
— to news.google.com
