Marquette’s McCoy seeks a kidney transplant
MILWAUKEE » This was supposed to be the year Tori McCoy finally got to play basketball at Marquette.
The plan in May 2017 when she transferred from Ohio State was to suit up in blue and gold this fall following a redshirt season. For now, basketball is on hold. A rare kidney disease led doctors to diagnose McCoy in December with end-stage renal failure. She gets dialysis treatments three times a week. Her physicians have determined that the best chance for long-term survival is to have a kidney transplant.
Initially reluctant to talk about her condition, McCoy is now speaking out following a lengthy medical evaluation process this past spring.
While on a transplant list, McCoy said in a letter posted on social media that “finding a live donor is the best option available and would be an answer to my prayers.”
She hopes to also raise awareness for organ donation overall.
“I fully understand asking for an organ donation from someone is substantial, but I also believe in the generosity and compassion of others,” McCoy wrote July 12 in the post, “and hope that by sharing my story others will be impacted.”
She knew of 10 people who have been interviewed as of the end of July after coming forward to express interest as possible donors.
“My telephone is a little busier (in McCoy’s case) than someone who has not shared their story,” Jeff Klister, the living kidney donor coordinator at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee.
For now, McCoy waits for word of a match. She is inspired by the messages of support received since first sharing her story on Twitter.
“I had several people reach out just to tell me, ‘Everything’s going to be OK, not to worry about it because this is just one bump that’s in the road that I can get over,”’ McCoy said.
There have been many emotionally draining days and nights since her diagnosis. She initially saw a doctor after feeling fatigued over Thanksgiving break. A cold got worse when she returned to campus.
“And then it just never got better, so that’s when we decided to take it a step further,” she said.
She saw a doctor on Dec. 6. The next day, she was told that she had Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis. It is a condition that affects kidney function by attacking and damaging the glomeruli, which are tiny filtering units insider the kidney where blood is cleaned, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
“I love basketball. From that moment on, I thought my life was over,” she said in recounting her reaction.
A former McDonald’s All-American, the 6-foot-4 McCoy averaged 8.1 points and 5.9 rebounds in her only season at Ohio State in 2016-17.