JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Just weeks after the funeral for a Jacksonville mother of three who died in a crash, News4Jax has learned her 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease.
Kinshasa Simon, 40, died in a crash when her car was hit by a truck that was exiting Martin Luther King Junior Parkway at Phoenix Avenue. Weeks after, Alyssa Lesesne, her daughter, began having major headaches.
While at the doctors office, a doctor said her blood pressure was too high, and she was admitted into Wolfson Children's Hospital, where she stayed for eight days.
“It had just been a month since my mom died so I was already frustrated from that and then I was doing blood tests at 2 o’clock in the morning," Lesesne said. "They would wake you up out of your sleep to draw blood.”
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Family members who are now watching over her and her two younger siblings are also frustrated.
“We were just so out of it because who expects to bury a sister, a mother, a daughter, a niece one day, then a couple of weeks later, you’re in a hospital visiting your niece for eight days," said Ricky Simon Jr., Lesesne's uncle.
Lesesne was diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease. She said she was told by a doctor that 90% of her kidneys were damaged and that she was beyond the need for dialysis.
“He said this has been happening over time, like, years. They just never detected it," Lesesne said.
Now Lesesne needs a kidney transplant. Stage 5 kidney disease means the kidneys have lost nearly all their ability to effectively do their job. Without dialysis or a kidney transplant, someone can die.
The teenager is now on a waiting list for a new kidney. Several of Lesesne's relatives are working to find out of their kidneys are compatible.
In the meantime, hospital bills are adding up, which is why her family has started a gofundme account.