A sja Joseph is a fighter. Just ask her mom, Donna, who says her daughter is the strongest person she knows.
“The things that she has gone through, most people will never go through in their lifetime,” she said. “If it were me, I don’t know if I could do it. We have a strong belief and faith in God. I believe that God knows that Asja is a strong person because he doesn’t give us more than we can bear.”
Asja, 28, is in need of a kidney transplant and has been on the national donors list since 2011. As she waits patiently for one, she has to spend 11 hours each night on dialysis.
“The good thing is [that] I can do this at home,” she said. “I only have to travel to the dialysis center in New Brunswick once a week.”
Asja was born with sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood cells, creating an abnormal sickle or crescent shape.
“Both my parents had the trait that carried the disease,” she said. “None of my family has the disease and my brother was born without it as well.”
Asja said the disease didn’t start bothering her until she was about 11 years old. That is the age she moved to North Brunswick.
She attended to Parsons Elementary School and Linwood Middle School. She went on to attend Middlesex County Vocational and Technical School for high school in East Brunswick.
“I was in and out of high school because of the pain,” she said. “I also needed blood infusions.”
In 2003, Asja had a bone marrow transplant to try to cure the sickle cell. Her brother Tarrell was found to be a perfect match and donated his bone marrow to her.
But after two years, it failed.
In 2005, Asja, who was 20 years old at the time, underwent a kidney transplant. In 2007, as a result from medications, it caused avascular necrosis that resulted in the need of a bilateral hip replacement.
After all this, Asja said she was free.
“I was working, I attended Middlesex County College [in Edison], I was hanging out with friends…I was living life,” she said.
However, in 2010, she said she started feeling “crappy.”
Her doctors at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick told Asja that her kidney was failing, and she needed a transplant and go on dialysis.
“I was like, ‘Great, here we go again. Déjà vu,’” she said.
To make things more complicated, Asja was told the implants from the bilateral hip replacement never settled into the bone like the doctors had hoped. “I had a bilateral hip revision done,” she said. Asja said she was lucky with that she only had to wait two weeks for her first kidney. This time around, Asja said she needs a perfect match. However, with antibodies she has developed from blood infusions, it has made it harder to find that match.
In 2013, Asja’s doctors recommended that she find a living donor. Her family members are not candidates due to complications with health and a lack of a match.
Instead, she has taken to social media, Craigslist, the township and the media, as well as Oprah, to get the word out that she is in need of a kidney.
“Without a transplant donor, I will live in pain until my body and my heart give up the struggle,” she said.
Asja said she can’t wait until she can go back to school, and she has decided that she wants to go into the medical field.
“I want to do something that helps people whether it’s nursing or social work,” she said. “So many people have helped me along the way, so I would like to give back.”
She added that she could not have done anything without the support of her family.
“My family keeps me going,” she said with a smile. “I have the will to live.”
A perfect kidney match would be someone with the blood type O-positive and in good health.
For more information, contact Asja at [email protected].
Contact Kathy Chang at [email protected].