Man searching for new kidney after contracting West Nile

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Clayton County man is in desperate need of a new kidney after he contracted the West Nile Virus following his first kidney transplant.

“I need someone, basically a miracle,” Randy Daniel, 59, told Channel 2’s Craig Lucie.

Daniel was born with polycystic kidney disease, also known as PKD, which causes clusters of cysts to develop in a person's kidneys.

In March 2003 a family member gave him a new kidney.

“It was from a very dear cousin of mine, Donna Oaks,” he said. “I received the transplant and was one of the happiest people.”

But when Daniel walked outside one day, things nearly took a deadly turn.

Daniel was working on his trailer in his backyard not long after his first transplant when he felt a mosquito bite him on his right cheek.

“The welt from the mosquito bite was very large. It left a golf ball-sized bump on my cheek,” he said.

With that one bite, Daniel contracted West Nile virus.

“He was in the hospital in a coma for 12 days. After that point, it caused a lot of damage to the kidney and unfortunately in 2007 that kidney failed,” said his wife.

Now Daniel is in need of a new transplant and prays every day for someone to come forward and be a match.

“I need a living donor. Someone to come forward with a good healthy kidney that would be placed in my body that would truly give me life back,” he said.

Daniel said they don't have any leads so far.

Daniel, who is blood type O+, is on the transplant list at Piedmont Hospital. See his Facebook page here for more information.

He said even if you are not a match for him, you may be a match for someone else and that's what he and his wife would love to see.

Daniel has been featured, along with hundreds of others in need of a kidney, on the Facebook page Callaway's Angels, which was started last year by the wife of a Greensboro police officer who received a kidney through a social media campaign.

WSBTV