New England Donor Services: Wakefield resident staying active after second chance at life
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — In 2019, Kim Pratt, a native of Wakefield, was given a second chance at life. Now, she’s using that chance to give back by inspiring others to give back, too.
Tragedy struck for Pratt and her family in 2014 when she developed a case of pneumonia that progressed into sepsis and eventually kidney failure. She was put into an induced coma for days and still remembers the horror of waking up and realizing what had happened to her.
“I remember they took me out of the coma on August 6, which is my birthday,” Pratt said. “And that’s when I overheard people talking in the room saying that they had done dialysis on me for, I think, five hours, which normally it’s like 3.5 or 4 hours. And I didn’t know what they were talking about. I didn’t understand what dialysis was.”
As Pratt embarked on a long journey to recovery, it became clear that she would need a new kidney in order to live. She was put on dialysis for five years, which is often the threshold for how long a person can survive on that treatment. Pratt said her blood type is O-, and that made the search even harder because while it’s the universal donor, she can only receive O- blood.
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