Man, 42, dies waiting for kidney transplant

Anderson Mitchell, 42, suffered from chronic kidney disease for over a decade, and died on February 4, still hoping for a kidney transplant.

Mitchell was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease focal segmental glomerulosclerosis in 2012. It is a rare kidney disease which causes scarring in the glomeruli, the network of blood vessels that clean the kidney.

At the time, the Chase Village resident was a capoeira instructor, Latin dancer and graphic designer.

In 2017, he was hospitalised for about four months because of a major infection and lost about 70 lbs. He was put on peritoneal dialysis, a treatment for kidney failure that uses the lining of the abdomen to filter waste products from the blood, as soon as the infection cleared.

During the pandemic, Mitchell was told the only way a transplant could be done was if he brought a donor, but his sister was ineligible and the three potential donors he found later changed their minds.

In a November 2024 interview with Newsday he said, “I spent an awful amount of money testing them, because I wanted to do things rapidly so I could get the transplant quickly. I tested them in the private system, I spent tens of thousands of dollars – and sadly, because of the level of ignorance in TT, these people were discouraged."

At the time, he was trying to raise $500,000 to get a kidney transplant at Kauvery Hospital, Chennai, India. He had raised $100,000.