East Hartford Rep. Jeff Currey, in search of his own kidney transplant, makes plea for more donors

East Hartford State Rep. Jeff Currey is just one of about 350 people on Hartford HealthCare’s organ transplant waiting list, but he is using his bully pulpit to raise awareness about the urgent need for more living donors to sign up to save his and hundreds of other lives.

Currey discovered this summer that he has chronic kidney disease and is already at stage five kidney failure, putting him in dire need of a living donor for a transplant as soon as possible, but he and many other transplant patients might wait years before a viable match is discovered.

But neither he nor hundreds of others on that list can wait, so he issued a plea Wednesday with officials from Hartford HealthCare for residents across the state to join the ranks of organ donors that make life-saving transplants possible.

“Right now only about 60% of people are registered organ donors, so hopefully hearing stories like this and hearing the need that there is across the state and across the country, hopefully people will step up,” Currey said. “You know, the next time they go to renew that license, hopefully they’ll check that box and be willing to help save a life.”