
Kidney donation to save my brother
My name is Katie Ziegler O'Rourke and my son Jeremy is donating a kidney to my brother Jack Ziegler. Jack has been on dialysis for just over two years, and although two of my sisters and Jack's sons tried to donate, they were not compatible. Jeremy graciously offered to give one of his and was accepted by Mayo as a donor. Due to previous surgeries, Jeremy's recovery time for kidney donation is estimated to be between 6-8 weeks. The transplant will be taking place at the Mayo clinic in Jacksonville, where Jack currently lives. Jeremy will need to be in Jacksonville for approximately 2 weeks and then will fly back home to Colorado to finish his recovery. Jeremy is a 33 year old who just had his 2nd daughter in the middle of July. Mayo is planning on a surgery date in early to mid September. We are hoping to raise funds to cover Jeremy's family's bills and expenses during his recovery time, as he is the sole provider for the family and will not be able to work for at least 2 months after surgery. Any financial support would be greatly appreciated. The entire Ziegler went to Whitefish Bay High School in Wisconsin and Jack is one of five siblings. He is a well loved brother, father, uncle and grandfather. We are hopeful that this transplant will give him back a higher quality of life so he can get back to visiting family and friends and stay out of the hospital. We are all grateful to Jeremy for giving his uncle this new lease on life.