Michael Blechar-Melancon is asking for help as he starts over in his search for a kidney.
In a GoFundMe fundraiser he organized, “Help Michael Through Kidney Failure,” the 21-year-old New Bedford man said he was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and stage 5 chronic kidney disease in December 2024 after years of knowing something was wrong. He began hemodialysis that month, then switched to peritoneal dialysis for nine hours a day because it was easier on his heart.
On October 20th, 2025, he received a living-donor kidney in Providence. He said a major surgical complication caused the transplant to fail after about a week, and he returned to daily dialysis. It took about seven months to get stabilized, with hospitalizations for seizures, bleeding, low hemoglobin, and difficult treatments.
Blechar-Melancon said he is now restarting care at Massachusetts General Hospital and is looking for another living kidney donor. He said the money is for medical expenses tied to dialysis, transplant care, hospitalizations, and restarting treatment.
“I stay hopeful in these trying times and am deeply grateful for any support.”
Anyone interested in being tested can go to mghlivingdonor.org and fill out a referral form with his name and date of birth, July 30, 2005.
