For organ recipients that await their perfect match, it can be difficult not knowing when that call might come.

In New York, there are more than 8,500 men, women and children on the recipient list. 

What You Need To Know

  • Eighty percent of those on transplant lists need a kidney.

  • A New Yorker will die every 15 hours from not receiving a life saving organ

  • New York had the third least registered organ donors, but the second highest need of organs in the country

One of those people waiting says while his journey has been difficult, what keeps him going is a chance at a new career.

For Sam Piazza, he finds his escape through the chords of his guitar.

“I started teaching guitar lessons when I was 18, just out on the side,” Piazza said. “And after I got sick and got laid off from construction and things like that, you know, it seemed like a good fit.”

Piazza has struggled for years with kidney issues. He was told in 2018 he needed a new kidney, but it wasn’t until the following year he was added to the transplant list.

“I had to wait to at much longer to just get on the list,” Piazza said. “About six months after that I had to start dialysis. So I’ve been doing this every night for two year.”

For the 32-year-old, the wait can be difficult, and at times frustrating.

“So I always have to have my phone on me, and I feel really annoyed with telemarketers because every time they call I have to answer it,” Piazza said. “Because I don’t know if it will be a kidney or not.”

While awareness for organ donation has increased over the years, Piazza says there’s still a ways to go before people truly understand how much donations are needed.

“I would like for people to be more aware of that,” Piazza said. “There are a lot of young people out there that need an organ donation and things of that nature, and stuff you would never even think of. Just because it’s an interior sickness, not an exterior.”

Piazza says the only distraction he can find is in his guitar. He’s currently going back to college, working to get his degree is music. A new kidney, he says could mean a chance at a new career for him.

“It would be pretty great to actually have the freedom to do that,” Piazza said. “To actually be doing something that I actually care about without having to care about whether I’m going to make it home or not for my treatments and everything like that.”