Orin E. Ness, a Havre native, spends three hours and 45 minutes, three times a week, sitting in a chair, connected to a machine at Northern Montana Hospital. The purpose is to stay alive. Ness has been battling endstage renal disease for the past two years and, though he started feeling better after the first two of months of dialysis, said it really isn’t a great way to live. “I lost the use of both kidneys to diabetes,” he said. “I have been on dialysis for over a year now. It is helping to keep me going and I am doing fairly well on the treatment, but I would really like to go back to work full-time. I am told that a kidney transplant is needed as soon as possible. “ Ness, by trade, is a traveling Licensed Practicing Nurse specializing in long-term care and the elderly in nursing homes. “I’ve done quite a bit of other nursing, but I enjoy the longterm nursing for elderly the most,” he said. Ness has been an insulinedependant diabetic since he was a teenager, close to 30 years. He was diagnosed with kidney failure two years ago and has been out of work since May 2006, when he became too tired to perform his duties. “By the time I did my shift I was so tired I could barely get myself home,” he said. “I couldn’t get through the day and do what needed to be done.” “It is nice there is a machine that helped me get stronger,” he said. “I sit at the machine and it draws blood from my body then runs it through the filter and takes out the excess fluids. There are times it has taken off 10 pounds of weight from one treatment. “But I don’t want to live on a machine all my life,” he added. The father of four, including one grown son, David, who is in the U.S. Marine Corps; a teenage son, Jonathon who lives in Idaho Falls, and two younger children, Kacie, 14, and Ayevharee, 11 who are currently living with Ness’ sister Becky Katchum in Helena; said he would only need one new kidney to resume his life. “I have done my evaluation at Porter Hospital in Denver, Colo. And there are a couple of matching donors available, but the huge expense of the transplant is making this a monumental task. I have Medicare, but many of the medical needs are not covered and have to be paid for out-ofpocket. I will need approximately $50,000 to cover immune-suppressant medicines and help with travel and relocation costs at the time of the transplant.” To help Ness meet the costs, the National Transplant Assistance Fund, a nonprofit organization that has been assisting transplant patients for close to 20 years, has opened an account for donations in Ness’ name. Contributions are administered by NTAF exclusively to cover uninsured transplant-related expenses. Donations are taxdeductible. Individuals can make donations to help Ness receive his new kidney by mailing to NTAF Northwest Kidney Transplant Fund with a memo note stating “For Orin E. Ness, and mailed to 150 N. Radnor Chester Road, Suite F-120, Radnor, PA 19087. For more information, call NTAF at 1(800)642-8399 or visit the Website at www.transplantfund. or
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