Cd'A man still waiting for organ transplant surgery

COEUR d'ALENE - Jameson Richards knows what he wanted for Christmas.

It has been on his list for six years.

He hopes he gets it sometime soon. By way of Santa and his reindeer would be fine. His life depends on it.

"I haven't quite reached hopeless," Richards said, laughing.

The 43-year-old needs a new kidney and a new pancreas. He has been on the double-organ transplant list since 2006.

So he waits. And waits.

"It hasn't been much of a holiday," he said..

Some days, it seems overwhelming.

"I don't know what keeps me going anymore," he said, smiling and shaking his head. "There's my son. Got to be around for him."

So he hangs on and hopes.

He's suffering from end stage renal failure and is on dialysis three days a week.

Because he can't work, he survives on supplemental Social Security of $650 a month.

He recently sold his Blazer to raise cash to try and save the Mill Street house where he lives with his son, the one that has been in his family three generations, that was built by his grandfather. It's in foreclosure.

"My son and I are at our wit's end," he said. "The main goal now is to save house."

"If I can do that, if I can get caught up, I should be fine."

Richards grew up in Coeur d'Alene, attended Winton Elementary and earned a GED from North Idaho College. He worked in security and trained as a paramedic before his health went south.

He underwent double-organ transplant surgery for his failing kidneys and pancreas in 1997. For around eight years, the new organs did their job well.

Eventually, though, they fail. And his did, too, starting in 2005.

These days, any physical exertion, he said, "kills me. I can't breathe."

"I'm pretty worn out. I'm constantly tired."

There are times he shakes his head at his misfortunate and wonders how it went so wrong, so fast.

"It used to be I had so much going for me," he said.

That was when he was healthy, he had a job, he was optimistic, he was engaged to his married.

All gone now.

A double-organ transplant offers new life. His health would bounce back. He could work. He could volunteer again. He could cook and write, two of his favorite pastimes.

"I'd be able to live a relatively normal life," he said.

Until then, he waits.

"I keep going," he said. "The doctors say I'm too stubborn to lay down and die."

Donations to help Richards save his home can be made at http://igg.me/p/290785/x/856641