A Palm Beach Gardens family is doing everything they can to find a perfect match for their 20-year-old son in need of a kidney.
Bobby Seelman loves to play golf. He spends hours each day practicing. However, when he's not on the golf course, he's hooked up to a dialysis machine fighting for his life.
“We get started at like 6 o'clock and it goes all the way until like 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning,” said Seelman.
He does dialysis about 12 to 13 hours a day.
“That he would need to start dialysis, that he would need to be put on the transplant list, it was probably 3 months before I could say either of those words without crying,” said Bobby's mom Angela Clarity Seelman.
That was 2 years ago. However, today the wait for a kidney continues.
“They are like wow, usually wow, and they say that they’ll pray for me,” said Seelman.
Bobby is an O positive blood type, which means he can only receive a kidney from another O positive person. It isn't unusual to wait years for a match, but if you find a living donor the process can be shortened.
“There are walking angels out there, I call them walking angels that want to donate a kidney," said Delray Beach Medical Center doctor Dr. Stuart Himmelstein.
The only problem is unlike a national list for receiving a deceased organ donation, there isn't a national list for living organ donations. But if you find someone you want to donate to, you can reach out to a donation center and request to be tested as a living donor.
"Most 20-year-olds would be upset to be attached to a machine 6 nights a week and not being out with their friends; not going to college but he’s been an all-star,” said Seelman.
Bobby Seelman is currently on the waiting list at Miami Transplant Institute at Jackson Hospital. If you want to be tested to help him, it's free all you need to do is contact them and say you want to be tested as a living donor for Robert Seelman IV. The Miami Transplant Institute's phone number is 305-355-5000.
Bobby is also registered at Tampa General Hospital. The phone number is 813-844-5669.
