Chicago musician Manny Roselle writes a song to help find kidney donors

The Chatham musician wrote a song to help him find kidney donors. This is a musical plea to wait for many years to wait for the kidneys.

The waiting list for a kidney transplant in Illinois is thousands of people. Manny Roselle is on that list.

Rozelle has been playing and playing the piano for over 60 years, but recently she has been physically exhausted by dialysis singing and dancing. A 17-year battle with kidney disease prevents him from carrying heavy musical equipment.

“I don't think I can do it any more. I don't think I can do gigs anymore,” he said, fighting back tears.

Rozelle recently created a song to search for donors. I hope his musical pleas will wait years for the kidney transplant list.

“I wrote about what I was feeling,” he said. “This is not the way I was supposed to retire.”

If the Rozelle story resonates with you, but you're not in the right blood type and you're not OK. His doctors at the University of Chicago Medical Center can adjust the kidney transplant chain.

Northwest Medicine performs the same type of organ change, with one donor's non-matched kidney going to another patient.

Registering to become an organ donor after you die can also save lives. Experts say more than 100,000 people in the US need organ donation, of which more than 90,000 are waiting for kidneys.

“I decided I had to say as many people as possible about this,” Roselle said.

If you are interested in becoming a Rozelle donor, please email ldchampion@uchospitals.edu or call 773-702-4500.