Waiting for a miracle: Scranton resident dreams of becoming kidney doctor while hoping for life-saving transplant
Jennifer Kalinowski, a board-certified registered nurse family practitioner, and her patient, Patrick Gallagher, at The Wright Center for Community Health North Scranton. While Patrick, 21, waits for a kidney transplant, Kalinowski makes sure he and his parents stay as healthy as possible.
Patrick Gallagher dreams of finding ways to improve kidney transplants or pioneering medical breakthroughs to help people with kidney disease.
He just needs a kidney first.
The 21-year-old Scranton resident’s kidney troubles began in the womb. He was diagnosed with posterior urethral valves, which occurs when abnormal flaps of tissue in the urethra block the flow of urine out of the bladder. This causes urine to back up, leading to swollen kidneys, a damaged bladder, and potential kidney failure.
Two decades later, after countless hospital stays, a kidney transplant at age 5, and nine years of dialysis treatments, he is hoping for another miracle. He’s on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) kidney transplant waiting list. However, Patrick and his parents, Roxane and William Gallagher, are hoping to find a living donor to increase the chances that his transplant will be a success.
While the family waits, Jennifer Kalinowski, a board-certified registered nurse family practitioner at The Wright Center for Community Health North Scranton, and her team make sure Patrick and his parents remain as healthy as possible.
“I always say that I’m the exception to every rule,” Patrick said with a laugh as he and his parents talked about his lifelong medical battle. “Maybe this time we’ll get good news.”
Patrick is no stranger to hospital rooms. Two days after he was born, he was flown to Hershey Medical Center for his first surgery. Complication after complication and infection after infection followed, his parents said. In 2010, when Patrick was 5, his doctors put him on the UNOS waiting list.
There are currently over 90,000 people on that list for a lifesaving kidney transplant in the United States, according to UNOS. Kidneys are by far the most in-demand organ, making up more than 86% of the entire national transplant waiting list.
Within two days of Patrick being listed, a kidney was found. The Gallagher family rushed to Hershey Medical Center, where Patrick underwent the transplant.
Patrick Gallagher in a hospital bed in 2024. The 21-year-old Scranton resident has been hospitalized countless times since he was born with a defect that affected his kidneys.
“I don’t remember too much about that time,” Patrick said, adding that his strongest memories from that year were the family’s trip to Disney World three months later, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. “What I remember most is that I was too scared to go on the Haunted Mansion Ride.”
When they returned from Disney, Patrick went right back to Hershey Medical Center for more care. Years of complications continued, including a month-long coma when he was in third grade.
About nine years ago, doctors decided the donated kidney had reached the end of its usefulness, and Patrick had to begin dialysis. At first, he underwent a nightly procedure done at home called peritoneal dialysis. When infections and scar tissue became too much of a problem, Patrick had to switch to hemodialysis at a DaVita clinic in Scranton three times a week.
The process leaves Patrick feeling fatigued and foggy. It’s impossible for him to have a job or go to college. He became a patient at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2024, and the family travels to the Iron City several times a year to see specialists.
Back at home, Kalinowski and her team at The Wright Center for Community Health North Scranton are doing what they can to keep Patrick and his parents healthy. While Patrick has a strong support system as he battles his chronic illness, not all patients are so lucky, the nurse practitioner said.
From left, father William Gallagher, son Patrick Gallagher, and mother Roxane Gallagher at The Wright Center for Community Health North Scranton.
“We’re a community health center, so part of our role is to advocate for our patients,” Kalinowski said. “In addition to providing whole-person primary health services, we want to make sure our patients are connected with the right specialists, that they’re getting their tests, going to their appointments, and that they feel heard about what’s going on in their lives.”
Patrick has been put back on the transplant list, but it will be harder to find a match this time, according to Roxanne Gallagher. That’s why the Gallaghers are hoping to find a living kidney donor, which would increase the chances of a successful transplant. There were 6,521 kidney transplants from living donors in the U.S. in 2025, according to UNOS, roughly 24% of the 27,573 total kidney transplants performed that year.
For more information, visit Patrick’s Kidney Place on Facebook or visit UPMC.com/LivingDonorKidney.
While he waits for news, Patrick will spend a week in late June serving as a counselor at Camp Kydnie, a sleepaway camp especially for kids with kidney disease in Millville, Pennsylvania. Patrick has been attending the camp since 2013 and says it’s a rare chance to be around other children battling different kinds of kidney disease. “We do archery and arts and crafts and, before I had the dialysis port, I would go swimming,” he said, adding later that working with kids just like him is a goal he’s had since he was young. “My dream job is a pediatric nephrologist, or maybe doing medical research about kidney disease. It’s something I’ve been saying since I was 5, or maybe even younger.”
