Ailing Bensonhurst girl needs a new kidney

P.S. 177 asking potential donors to come forward

Ten-year-old Khadijah Sabir longs for the day when she can be just like other kids her age. The Bensonhurst fifth grader loves reading, writing, drawing and making fluffy slime. But Khadijah can’t do a lot of things children her age can do because of her health.

Khadijah has suffered from chronic kidney failure for more than a year and desperately needs a kidney transplant.

She is hoping a donor steps forward to help her. “I pray everyday that God can send me someone to give me their kidney. I want to live a normal life like other kids my age,” she wrote on her page on the National Kidney Registry’s (NKR) website. “I’m unable to do many activities with my cousins and siblings because of the catheter I have in my abdomen.”

Khadijah, who is a student at P.S. 177, is getting a great deal of love and support from the entire school community, according to Susanna Caleca, the school’s parent coordinator.

“She’s a beautiful little girl, always smiling. We want to get the word out that she needs a kidney donor,” Caleca told this newspaper.

“No 10-year-old child should have to go through what she’s going through,” Caleca added.

P.S. 177 officials reached out to parents to see if anyone would be willing to be tested to see if they were a match for Khadijah. And the District 21 Community Educational Council (CEC) has sent out notices to all of its 40 schools asking for potential donors. The CEC, which covers schools in Coney Island, Gravesend and parts of Bensonhurst, has a wide reach.

Khadijah’s parents were tested as potential donors but were rejected by doctors. “My mom was a match, but after testing, it turned out she was pre-diabetic so she was no longer eligible to give me her kidney. My dad has high blood pressure so he didn’t qualify,” the youngster candidly wrote on her NKR page.

Meanwhile, Khadijah bravely undergoes dialysis seven nights a week, from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., Caleca said. “I can’t even talk about her situation without crying,” she said. “She’s trying to live as normal a life as possible, but there are days when you can see how this is all affecting her.”

Khadijah, who is one of four children, admitted that at times, it’s all too much. “At times, I get very depressed especially when a lot of family is over because I see everyone is happy and healthy and I’m not. I wish someone can donate their kidney to me, so I can be normal again,” she wrote.

Still, she is grateful for the love of her family and the care she is receiving from her doctors and nurses. “They all are so good to me and do everything they can to make my life a bit easy,” she wrote.

After she gets her new kidney, Khadijah wants to go to Disneyland for a week. She also wants to go to the Slime Factory and Six Flags Great Adventure, she wrote.

For more information, visit: www.nkr.org/cen498.

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