Please Help Steve Hershey Find a Kidney

Hello, my name is Steve Hershey.

I am 64 years old. I am a husband, a father to three, and a grandfather to ten (and counting). I am a lifelong farmer in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, raising cattle and chickens.

My wife and I are active members at Florin Church of the Brethren. My faith in God and the love of my family allows me to have great hope for what the future holds for me.

Thank you for reading my story.

Journey with Kidney Disease

My kidney issues began in 1974 when I was just 14 years old.

I was playing catcher for my church softball team when a runner from 3rd slid into me and knocked the wind out of me. Two hours later, I was in the hospital, and my kidney was bleeding. I spent three weeks in the hospital recuperating, but the kidney ultimately had to be removed as it was no longer functioning. There were no signs that my other kidney had any issues.

Sixteen years later, in 1990, a blood test revealed that my remaining kidney had kidney disease. Over the next 30 years, doctors closely monitored the progression of the disease until 2020, when I hit stage five and I started hemodialysis.

In January 2021, my daughter, Jill, went through testing to be a donor, and she was a perfect match. Despite being a wife and mother of three, she decided to give me one of her kidneys.

Our surgeries took place on February 2, 2021. The doctors said the surgery went well, and the kidney was functioning beautifully. Still, the post-operation tests did not indicate that the kidney was functioning, which can be normal. Five days after the transplant, I got the devastating news that the test showed that the donor kidney had clotted over and was not functioning.

On February 9, 2021, I went back into surgery to have the kidney removed, and I have been on dialysis ever since.

You can read through the day-by-day journey of this ordeal on our Caring Bridge page.

A Farmer's Life

I am a third-generation farmer, owning and working on the same farm my grandfather and father owned and worked. My son, Seth, is also on the farm with me, making it a four-generation farm.

Farming is not easy work and requires long hours and physical labor. I praise God that despite my kidney disease, I have the energy and strength to do the work I need to do to provide! That is not the case for most people at this advanced stage.

Every night, I have to be hooked up to peritoneal dialysis for 10 hours and cannot leave my bedroom during that time.

In 2023, I was hospitalized for several days with a painful infection stemming from the dialysis port. This infection still flares up from time to time. For this reason and others, doctors have considered switching me to traditional haemodialysis, but this would make farming more difficult as I would have to spend 4-5 hours each day at a dialysis center.

My Prayer

I am on the donor list, but there is no guarantee that I will ever get a kidney from the list.

Please join me and my family in praying that I can be matched with a living donor.

If you or someone you know is considering donating and going through the testing process, we have the details here.