This stranger donated a kidney to a Broadway dancer, now he needs another transplant
Just as he was hitting a stride in his career, Broadway dancer Jamal Shuriah was given a devastating diagnosis: He had a rare kidney disease and would need a life-saving transplant.
Shuriah eventually received a match, a stranger named Kim Constantinesco, and was able to undergo transplant surgery on Dec. 16, 2020. While he says the surgery was initially a “great success,” he became seriously ill days later. “I was in so much pain. I've never been in that much pain in my life,” he says. Shuriah had developed an intestinal infection from the surgery. Doctors performed several surgeries on him, but Shuriah’s new kidney clotted and died.
Constantinesco says that curiosity got the best of her following the surgery, and she looked Shuriah up online to see how his recovery was going. That's when she learned that the kidney transplant had failed. "My heart broke for Jamal," she says.
After connecting with Shuriah, Constantinesco is trying to help get the word out about his need for a new kidney donor. Shuriah's community started a website and instagram called FindJamalaKidney.
Video Transcript
KIM CONSTANTINESCO: I knew going into the experience that I was giving up my kidney for someone that I did not know. I wanted to give someone a second chance at life. It didn't matter whether or not I knew the person.
JAMAL SHURIAH: I'm Jamal Shuriah. I do Broadway tours, Broadway. I'm a commercial dancer.
Performing is pretty much my life. Everything was going really smooth and well up until 2017. And my body swelled up.
I got a biopsy done, which then told me that I had FSGS, which is a rare kidney disease. I felt like death. I didn't know if I was going to get through it. My stomach was killing me.
I tried to deal with it the best that I could. I was still performing. My head hurt, everything hurt. I then needed to go on dialysis.
I would start that at 4:00 AM. And then I'd do another one three hours later and so on. And then I go to rehearsal, or I'd go to a performance. They have you start thinking about asking a donor. But either family had health problems that wouldn't allow them or people just were nervous about it and didn't want to go forward with it.
KIM CONSTANTINESCO: I had considered kidney donation on and off for many years. Obviously there's been so much life lost this year that I wanted to inject some life into someone's life because COVID or no COVID, I know that people still need kidneys. Ultimately I got cleared to donate. I did learn that I was donating to a 32-year-old man.
To me just knowing his age, it told me that there's someone out there that has a whole life in front of him. As soon as I walked in, I saw two gentlemen standing in front of me and one looked to be about 32 years old. I don't know why I took a picture of him. I just had this gut feeling that he was my intended recipient. When I left the hospital, I just assumed that it was smooth sailing from there.
JAMAL SHURIAH: So the surgery went well. It was a great success, or so they told me. Four days later come to find that I had acquired a gastrointestinal infection. The kidney had blood clotted. I'm now on hemodialysis until I get a donor.
KIM CONSTANTINESCO: During the recovery, curiosity got the best of me. And I ended up searching his name online. And I had learned that the kidney had been rejected.
I was heartbroken for Jamal more than anything. I wrote an email to him through his website. I still wanted to be part of this process of getting Jamal the kidney that he needs.
JAMAL SHURIAH: I wanted to know who my donor was. I definitely wanted to thank her. I saw that photo. And I was very surprised. I was like if you could post what your daily life is since the surgery and how fast the recovery is for a donor, I think it would help a lot of people.
KIM CONSTANTINESCO: Living organ donation can potentially change someone's life. It can prolong their life. It can give them hope.
I've been an athlete my entire life. I would get what it's like to have that strong desire to move your body. And so I really connected with him on that level.
JAMAL SHURIAH: I get fatigued within maybe two minutes of standing. The thought of even dancing is-- I couldn't and I wish I could. I'll be waiting for the next transplant donor that decides to give me a kidney.
KIM CONSTANTINESCO: I hope Jamal gets the kidney that works for him as soon as possible. The world needs him.
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