Over the past year and a half, Middalia Kan has endured serious health issues from renal failure that involved hospital stays, doctor appointments and travel.
The Marshburg resident, who is planning to undergo a kidney transplant in the near future, also has mounting expenses that will be helped through a benefit on Saturday.
The benefit, slated for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Corner Bar and Restaurant on Mechanic Street, will include food, live music, a 50/50 raffle and a Chinese auction.
Kan, 56, said the first of her medical issues began in March of 2016 when she had triple bypass heart surgery. While she did well with the surgery, she began having trouble with her kidneys in June of 2016. Soon afterward she was diagnosed with renal failure and needed medication.
“Two weeks later I was in kidney failure. I went from Stage 4 to end stage,” she added. “They told me I would be looking at a transplant or dialysis.”
Kan (pronounced Can), said she had been on medication over the past year, but despite this her health declined and by March she was placed on a kidney transplant list. In June, doctors told her she would have to start dialysis treatments. Over the past four months, she has traveled to Warren three days a week for dialysis and two days a week for cardiac rehabilitation.
She also travels to Erie and Buffalo, N.Y., for medical treatments.
“They put me on a transplant list … but a lot of people are on those waiting lists for four years,” Kan continued. “Or you can try for a living donor.”
She hopes to receive a kidney, as soon as October, from her sister through the latter program. Her transplant will be conducted at Hamot Medical Center in Erie by surgeons from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
“We just completed all the testing, and the testing is awful” for the transplant, Kan admitted.
She said the transplant operation will be a bright spot in her life, and that of her family, after a very difficult year with her health as well as the loss of her son, Jimmy, in March.
She said her daughters, Nichole and Kaitlyn, and baby granddaughter, Kyla, have also provided support to her. In addition, her husband, Casey, who runs Kan’s Water Hauling business for the local oil industry, has been a big help to her.
“Casey has been wonderful … he always makes a point of taking me to all of my appointments,” she remarked.
Kan said she has been unable to work in the past couple of months because of her illness. She most recently helped her husband with his business. She also had worked in accounting with Dresser Piping Specialties, Atlantic Broadband, W.R. Case and Sons Cutlery Co. and Zippo Manufacturing Co. in the past.
Her daughter, Nichole Kan, said a number of people have donated items for the basket raffles, but more gift items are welcome for the benefit. Items in the auction include a hunting tree stand, a Kindle Fire tablet and a Fitbit exercise bracelet.
She said donations will be accepted for lunch, which will include beef on wick, beans, salad, macaroni salad, pasta salad and dessert items. Pepsi will provide soft drinks for the event. In addition, live music will be played by Dave Morris.
Nichole Kan said donations of additional baskets for the benefit may be dropped off at the Corner Bar by 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
For more information, send emails to nicholekan@yahoo.com.
