After being diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, Denice Russell was forced to leave her job with the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicles Division and move in with her sister in another state. After waiting more than three years, she received a kidney transplant. Having since recovered from a severe automobile accident, Denice returned back to her life and work in Arizona.

Denice's Story

On Valentine’s Day 2002, Denice Russell learned that she had end-stage renal disease. She would need to begin dialysis immediately as she waited for a kidney transplant. Unable to care for herself or work full time, she had to leave her life in Arizona to move in with her sister in Bedford, OH.

Denice waited for a kidney for some three years. During that time, several people in her family wanted to donate, but some had diabetes and others were diagnosed with diabetes while going through the potential donor screening process.

“It was difficult to go to dialysis three times a week and be in an area that I was totally unfamiliar with,” said Denice. “But one learns to adjust, and I survived. I met wonderful people who also had kidney disease and joined a church, where I volunteered to help with their festival.”

After Denice received her long-awaited kidney transplant, new challenges were in store for her. A severe car accident resulted in 19 fractures and other internal injuries, and she arrested five times during a four-month hospital stay. Through it all, her new kidney continued to function normally. Nearly two years after the accident, she recently undewent what she hopes will be her final surgery.

Today, Denice, 55, is back at the job that she loves as a customer service representative in Arizona Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division. “I saw a lot of people die waiting for an opportunity to get a donor and others who were so afraid of losing a limb that they couldn’t understand how they would be able to survive,” Denice remembered. “For myself I had God in my life, a great passion to survive, and a family who was there to help me to do so.”