(NDG Wire) When school starts Aug. 26, University of North Texas at Dallas senior David Delgado will need just one class to graduate in December with a degree in criminal justice, but his toughest assignment this year will come outside of the classroom.
Delgado was put on the national kidney transplant list, and he started kidney dialysis three days a week for three hours a day at the end of June. He goes to his doctor twice a month to have his kidneys monitored and has had to get several blood transfusions.
Born in Mexico, Delgado, now 28, has lived in Oak Cliff since he was three. He was a three-sport athlete at Adamson High School playing four years of baseball and two years of football and basketball. He said he was always active and never got sick.
But one morning last August while on vacation at Miramar Beach in Tampico, Mexico, Delgado woke up vomiting blood. He was taken to a doctor who informed him that he needed to see a specialist because his blood pressure was high and his red blood cells were attacking his white cells.
Delgado went to see a nephrologist, and after running tests, the doctor gave him the bad news: his kidneys were failing. He was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy, or Berger’s disease. “This only happens to one in 10,000 people in the world,” the doctor told him. “You’re the unfortunate one.”
IgA is a protein that helps the body fight infections. When too much of it builds up in the kidneys, it can cause the kidneys to leak blood and eventually to fail.
According to Dr. Darrin D’Agostino, chair and associate professor of internal medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, the disease usually progresses slowly or not at all. It can exist undetected for years, and by the time symptoms appear, total kidney failure may be near. But only 25 percent of adults with Berger’s disease develop end-stage kidney failure, D’Agostino said.
Berger’s disease causes high blood pressure, high cholesterol, swelling of the hands and feet, and blood in the urine; so Delgado takes 10 pills a day.
“It’s real strong medicine, so you kind of can’t concentrate right, but you try to do the best,” Delgado said. “You forget things sometimes. It’s hard to concentrate in class and taking tests.”
But the worst thing is the pain.
“I wake up sore. I go to sleep sore. It feels like somebody just hit my back really hard. Your back hurts all the time. You get nauseated in the morning throwing up. You lose a lot of weight. I’ve lost 50 pounds. Sometimes your face gets swollen in the morning because your kidneys are not processing the liquids.”
He is not able to drink any alcohol and very few soft drinks, and he has to maintain a low sodium diet. “I don’t eat that much outside. My wife does the cooking.”
The disease also causes anemia, which is difficult for someone who used to be so active. Sometimes when Delgado stands up his nose starts bleeding; and he can’t exercise because he gets winded just walking the short distance from the parking lot into the UNT Dallas building.
Delgado told his wife, Martha,—a kindergarten teacher at Rosemont Elementary School—that they had to get through this. “It’s not the end of the world,” he told her. After his diagnosis, he went to his priest and asked, “Why me?” His priest told him that things happen for a reason and that it could have been worse.
Delgado was put on the kidney transplant list after going through a series of psychological tests. He said he wasn’t depressed after his diagnosis but that it is always on his mind, making it hard to concentrate.
“I’m going to have to take medicine for the rest of my life, and a kidney transplant is not a sure thing either because the body can reject the kidney. You can die.”
Delgado tries to focus on the hope of getting a new kidney, and surviving.
“I haven’t lost hope. I have a lot of family support. I even have a couple of friends that have told me, ‘If you need a kidney, I’ll give it to you.’ That makes me feel really good.”
Last spring he had a biopsy done and had to miss two days of class. He called Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Eric Coleman from his hospital bed to tell him that he wouldn’t be in class. Coleman said he admired Delgado for calling him, especially from his hospital bed.
“I looked over at David in class one day and it became clear to me that I didn’t have a problem, not when you think about what he is facing,” Coleman said. “We encounter students that are not as engaged in coming to class and doing those things that they should be doing as a learner.
“Then you see David who is undergoing all of these personal life issues and crises but still performs at optimum levels and never misses. You don’t encounter persons with those issues that have that sort of tenacity and spirit. Most people going through this would drop out of school, but this guy has stayed in. He inspires me.”
Delgado said he has learned a lot from Coleman, not just as a professor but also as a regular person outside of class. “I told him that he’s one of the best professors I’ve had in my college career.”
UNT Dallas made it possible for him to get his degree, Delgado added. He had to take two classes at UNT and would have to get up at five in the morning to drive all the way to Denton.
“It’s just really helpful having the Dallas campus here. I think it’s a pretty good place, real good teachers. It’s accessible. I think it’s a pretty good campus,” he said.
Delgado works full time for Smart Start installing ignition interlock devices on the cars of people charged with DWI. The system prevents cars from starting if it detects alcohol on a driver’s breath. He hopes to land a job in corporate security after graduating in December.
Did he ever imagine something like this happening to him?
“No, I had big plans to start a family, finish my degree on time, travel and enjoy other things.
I like to travel a lot. My wife and I saved up money to go on trips. We’ve been fortunate to take trips to Europe.
“I was a healthy guy. I don’t do drugs. I don’t do heavy drinking, nothing like that. It’s sad that it happened, but like I said, it’s something I have to get through.”
Delgado said he had noticed on his driver’s license the organ donation option and wondered why someone would agree to donate a kidney or a heart.
“Now I understand why.”
