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Bobby Williams (left) and son Matt look at pictures of Matt after his kidney transplant (that he received from Bobby!).
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When you're 20-years-old, being told you need dialysis is not something you want to hear.
Matt Williams, a Morristown-Hamblen East High graduate, found out that his kidneys had failed due to a hereditary condition called Alports disease.
In the Spring of 1998, Matt was rushed to the emergency room after his throat closed shut. When the doctor could not get Matt's throat to open, he had to have a tube put down his throat and be hooked up to a breathing machine. He was then flown to Fort Sanders Medical Center in Knoxville, where he spent three days in ICU. It was there that Matt was told he had to have dialysis.
Matt began dialysis as soon as he got to Fort Sanders. The dialysis would work to filter the wastes out of his blood since his kidneys were not capable of doing the process.
After being sent home from Fort Sanders, Matt spent his summer break away from Walters State Community College, having dialysis treatments three time a week for three and a half to four hours each day.
Matt's father, Bobby, wanted to be tested to see if he could donate one of his kidneys to his son. Even some of Matt's friends offered to come forward and be tested.
Matt found out, after almost a full year of dialysis, that he would be able to receive his father's kidney.
"I just accepted the fact (that I had to have a transplant)," Matt said. "I did what I had to do to get off of dialysis."
Before Matt was first diagnosed with kidney failure, he said he did not realize the impact of organ donation.
"I saw people on TV and said it isn't going to happen to me, but it did," he said.
Matt wnet into Johnson City Medical Center on July 20, 1999. He was set to have the transplant operation the following morning. The surgeries for both Matt and Bobby went without a hitch, Matt said. He did notsuffer from any episodes of rejection, which is typically normal for anyone who has a transplant.
Although Matt could not tell a difference when he woke up from surgery, he said as the weeks went by he could feel himself getting better.
"I do consider myself lucky that I wasn't on dialysis for two or three years waiting for a kidney," he said.
Aside from gaining his life back, Matt also secured a much stronger relationship with his father.
"It's indescribable," he said. "He saved my life. I could be dead now or still be on dialysis."
"Before this happened we just had a 'hi' and 'bye' relationship," Matt said. "Now I tell him I love him everyday."
Matt said that organ donation is a way to make a difference in someone's life.
"A lot of people say they wouldn't (donate their organs)," he said. "What if it was them? Wouldn't they want someone to do it for them?"
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