Ben Tielle, Pittston Tomato Festival committee member, displays the t-shirt searching for a kidney donor. Tielle, 52 of Pittston, is in stage 4 kidney disease.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Jimmy Tigue is shown with his 11-year-old son, Jim, at a show at the Mohegan Sun Arena in the fall of 2019 after his appearance as Jimmy T as Elvis.
Submitted photo
PITTSTON — Over the last two years, two Greater Pittston men have been on a quest for the ultimate gift of life — a kidney donor to keep them alive.
Pittston’s Ben Tielle, 54 years old, and Dupont’s Jimmy Tighe, 38 years old, are looking for anyone that will step up and help save their lives. According to both men, donating a kidney is not as difficult or as painful as you may think, which might help tip the scale in their favor in receiving a living donation.
Both men met each other while on dialysis in 2019 and soon became friends.
Tighe, known in Greater Pittston and beyond as “Jimmy T as Elvis” since 1998, performing as Elvis Presley, received his first kidney transplant when he 7 years old. That transplanted kidney lasted 31 years, which is unheard of regarding donated kidneys.
“The big problem with finding a donor is everything has to match from the blood type to the size of the kidney,” Tighe said. “It has to be a perfect match.”
“Both of us had a lot of people have come up to us telling us they want to donate only to find out they don’t match,” Tielle said. “My brother was a perfect match for me and when they did a CAT scan on him they found out he had a medical issue he was unaware of.”
“It kind of sucks to know that you may have a match, but they find out they have an issue so they cannot donate,” Tighe said. “Well, it’s good for them because they discovered they have a medical issue, but then again, it sucks for us because we don’t get a kidney.”
The plight of both men is not uncommon in the area of organ donation, and according to Tielle and Tighe, the wait for a perfect match could take five to seven years.
The key to waiting to receive a donation is patience.
Tielle is currently using the method of peritoneal dialysis from home, where he can have his blood cleaned through this process from the comfort of his home. His procedure is 11-hours daily, and he said he does most of it time in the evening and through his sleep.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, there are two types of dialysis — continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis and automated peritoneal dialysis.
“In hemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine, and returned to your body by tubes that connect you to the machine. In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid called dialysate, which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.”
Tighe is utilizing a relatively new type of hemodialysis at home that does not take as long and fewer days but the end result is the same.
“Doing treatment at home is way better than sitting at the dialysis center,” Tighe said. “It’s way better do it at home. I’m getting training to do the new procedure at home. As long as my blood work comes back good, I may have to do dialysis for 2 ½ hours three days a week.”
Both men will attest dialysis from a dialysis center is exhausting.
In 2019, the Pittston Tomato Festival committee, an organization for which Tielle is a volunteer, decided to help with his cause to not only create kidney donation awareness, but to help Tielle in locating a live donor. The slogan “B+ for Ben” was created, and according to Tielle, more than a half dozen people stepped forward but none matched his profile.
The struggle continues for both men, and although they will accept a kidney from a recently deceased donor or a live donor, they will both be grateful for the gift of life.
Tielle is registered for his kidney donation through Jefferson Hospital at Philadelphia and Tighe is registered at Geisinger Hospital at Danville.
If anyone is interested in seeing if they are a perfect match for either, you can reach out to Tielle at 570-430-1924 or Tighe at 570-885-1091.
