Kenneth Henderson lived with kidney disease from the age of 19. It wasn’t until he was 32 that he found out he had stage five kidney failure – just one day before his youngest daughter Naomi’s first birthday.
“I had just come back from a trip to Africa,” he said. “I told my doctors that my daughter has a birthday party tomorrow. Send me home. I’ll come back the next day because they wanted me to start dialysis right away.”
He began dialysis—choosing peritoneal, which he performed overnight for 10 hours each night. While peritoneal dialysis worked better for his lifestyle, as a father of two young daughters, it provided other limitations.
“It was like, ‘OK guys, we’re having fun, but Dad’s got to go hook up,’” Kenneth said. “You got kids you want to play with, that want to play with their dad. They wanted me to pick them up, run outside and I was just slowly feeling myself decline.”
Despite the physical and emotional toll, Kenneth kept moving. He didn’t want his diagnosis to hold him back. Known by his care team as the “most traveled dialysis patient,” he visited places like Florida, Seattle, Cancun, and Texas with his portable dialysis machine. He remained on dialysis for four and a half years.
“Eventually, I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t even get excited about traveling anymore. I was declining,” he admitted.
In the early hours of a Sunday morning in August 2023, he received a phone call that would change his life. He was in Chicago, wrapping up a summer getaway with his family before the school year began. The call came at 2:00 a.m.
“My wife heard the call come through, because I was asleep,” he recalled. “She woke me up and I answered the phone pretending like I was wide awake. They said, ‘we have a kidney for you.’ It was life changing.”
Kenneth and his wife, Chardonnay, quickly jumped into action. They woke up their daughters and told them the good news. On the nearly three-hour ride to Trinity Health back home in Grand Rapids, they called their pastors who prayed for them, and their family and friends who stepped in to take care of the girls.
“The kids were hugging me and we’re praying, giving their kisses,” he recalled. “Not knowing what’s going to happen next. My oldest Hanna didn’t know if I was going to die or live, you know. She told me she didn’t know if that was going to be her last time seeing me.”
Kenneth did all he could to speed up his recovery time in the hospital. He wanted to go back home with his family.
“Life looks different now,” he said. “The limitations are lifted. I can swim with my kids, stay up for movie night, and go to bed without hooking up to a machine. It’s freedom.”
Recently, Kenneth joined the team at Gift of Life Michigan as the community coordinator for West Michigan. In his role, he shares his experience with students, families and the community, helping people understand the impact of organ, eye and tissue donation.
“I’ve been practicing my presentation with my girls,” he shared. “Because I always tell them that this is a part of our story. There is a new normal that I have now, and I’m learning to navigate it and how it affects my parenting. It’s a journey, but it’s a journey of gratitude.”
More than 2,600 patients in Michigan are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. The best way to save lives is by joining the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. To sign up, visit golm.org/signup.
