Even as Vada Conant served in the Air Force, Army, and as a nurse, her kidneys were deteriorating due to decades of high blood pressure. And even through dialysis and an 8-year wait for a transplant, she spread the word on organ donor awareness.
Gift of Life: Kidney transplant enables retired military veteran Vada Conant to continue life of serviceWith more than 5,000 people are on the local transplant waiting list, every organ is precious. For those needing kidneys, the wait can be five years or more.
"This building has been here since 1919," she explains, showing Action News around the log cabin.Now, she's also commander of an historic American Legion, Vandiver-Moylan Post 355 in Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County.At 22, Vada developed high blood pressure, which was hard to control on remote deployments. "I had meds, but no one monitored my blood pressure," she says. "I'd complain of being dizzy, and they'd be like - 'It's 98 degrees, You'll be fine. Drink some water'.''"All these years, my kidneys have been beaten up by that high pressure," Vada notes. After she retired from the military in the 1990s, she says doctors never informed her of the deterioration of her kidneys. It was the days before patients themselves could access test results.By 2018, Vada was listed for transplant and went on dialysis. It was a dark, isolating time. "You're there three days a week, four hours at a time," she says of time at a dialysis center. "Several of the patients expired while I was there." Still, Vada kept up work on her masters degree, bringing an iPad, books, and phone to dialysis. Even with home dialysis, she missed a lot of family and community life. "My attendance at synagogue was affected. My attendance for Gift of Life presentations, my attendance at Legion," she recalls."Then I didn't hear anything more for five years, six years," Vada says."She wasn't just spreading the word for herself, but really for all the people that were, that she saw on dialysis," Hasz says.Hasz says more living donors can help, along with reducing high blood pressure and diabetes, which are two prime causes of kidney disease.Last year, just before becoming post commander, Vada's phone rang.Vada awoke early the next morning, with more energy than she'd had in years. And a year later, she's still raising donor awareness.
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