How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
"I ask myself every day how I am able to balance everything."
That's coming from SCPS junior Jennifer Flood, who — on top of being a part-time psychology student at NYU — is a full-time mother, sister and medical activist.
After her father, Daniel Flood, was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2007, Jennifer and her two sisters, Cynthia and Heather, used Craigslist to find him a live donor. He underwent a successful transplant operation in 2008.
"It gave us a sense of hope, even though it was a shot in the dark," Flood said. "I knew the national waiting list or dialysis were not options we could use. We needed an out-of-the-box idea to save our dad."
In March 2008, Flood and her sisters started the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation of America, a secure database that helps people who are seeking organs find living donors.
Since finding a donor for Daniel through Craigslist, the Flood sisters have helped two others — Jim Collis, 49, of New Jersey, and Betty Arkin, 72, of Florida — obtain kidney transplants from live, altruistic donors.
Collis, their first transplant success, had been searching for a donor for almost five years. He was on waiting lists at various hospitals and had to undergo dialysis three times a week. After learning the Flood sisters' story, he turned to the foundation, which matched him with Jennifer Gregoire, 37, of New Hampshire, in two weeks.
"Once we met them, it was like family," Collis said. "Everything came together at the right time and the right place. Without [Flood Sisters], this would have been impossible."
Arkin had been on dialysis for two years before she learned about the foundation. Like Collis, she was on a series of lists at nearby hospitals, but her prospects of finding a viable kidney donor were slim.
Upon enrolling in the foundation, Arkin was matched with an anonymous donor from Minnesota. She received her transplant Sept. 17 at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and is now recovering.
"No one goes that extra mile to get these people together," Arkin said. "[Flood Sisters] matches them up. They're such unbelievable angels to save our lives."
She said she looks forward to finally being able to visit her daughter Jordana in California and being free from dialysis.
The foundation also held a fundraiser for Adam McCleskey, 16, of Lufkin, Texas, so he could fly to Baltimore to meet with Dr. Robert Montgomery, a renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital. McCleskey, who was born with polycystic kidneys and has been on dialysis for seven years, has had several unsuccessful kidney transplants.
The foundation has already received exposure from NBC, CNN and Fox News.
"Every time we receive media coverage, we obtain donors and patients along with other opportunities for growth," Flood said. "We are truly excited and grateful for the coverage and for the publicity we have received thus far."
Flood said she plans to continue her studies at the graduate level in psychology, public health or holistic medicine.
"To this day, holistic medicine fascinates me, and it works well with my foundation," she said. "At Flood Sisters, we don't rely on the current medical system. We give patients hope and most of all, a life-saving transplant."
