Saved by the Family Dog

By COLlive staff

Aaron Cohen was on dialysis in his Toronto home for four and a half years. Five nights a week, he hooked himself up to two needles that removed, cleansed, and then returned his blood to his battered body.

At age 17, the teenager had been diagnosed with membranous nephropathy, in which the kidneys are prevented from properly filtering fluids and waste.

“One night while I was on dialysis, sleeping through the eight-hour treatment at home, one of the needles snapped. Because the needle pulls out so much blood at such a rapid pace, blood started spurting out of my body and spraying everything.

“I woke up bathed in sweat. It was the worst feeling I have ever had. I was so dizzy. All I remember is falling back asleep. Blood kept on coming out and I was semi-unconscious at that point. I fell out of my bed.

“When my dog, who was sleeping in my mother and father’s room, heard the noise, she started barking. She barked and scratched at their door, my father telling her to be quiet. But she was so persistent.

“Finally, he got up and opened their door and the dog ran straight to my bedroom door and barked louder. My dad told her to be quiet, not to wake me. She didn’t stop. He opened the door to check and that’s where he found me, on the floor, in a huge pool of blood.

“He called the ambulance and by the time they came I was pretty much not there. I had lost a considerable amount of blood. The doctors at the hospital said a few more minutes and I could have died.”

Doctors told him that the disease would decrease his kidney function slowly over the next 25 years. But less than four years later, his kidneys failed and Aaron began dialysis. During this time, he was on a waiting list, praying that a new kidney would return him to a normal life.

After many false starts, one did.

In May of 2011, in a Toronto hospital, Sarah Konsker donated her kidney to Aaron. In December of that year, Chabad of Markham (Thornhill, Ontario) hosted an event to honor Sarah and Aaron and to spread the word about kidney donation.

Sarah agreed to speak, in the hopes that her experience would encourage others to consider donating as well. Her full story will be published in the new Tishrei issue of the N’shei Chabad Newsletter.

ALSO IN THE TISHREI ISSUE:

Rabbi Manis Friedman about chinuch, Eliza Tizabgar on becoming closer to Yiddishkeit, Abraham Pasternak surviving the Holocaust, Fraidel Schusterman shares her childhood memories of hakafos in 770, Fruma Porter shares what it’s like to get remarried in her 50’s.

There is also a chat between the editors of Binah Magazine and N’shei Chabad Newsletter. Plus: Esther Etiquette addresses the question of when to share the news of your pregnancy with your family and friends, and how much is too much when hosting guests.

Read all this and more in the upcoming Tishrei issue of the N’shei Chabad Newsletter, at newsstands by September 4. Or click here to subscribe: nsheichabadnewsletter.com.

CONTACT: [email protected]