Amelia Rivera is a three-year-old girl who desperately needs a kidney to survive.  However, unlike most patients, she was denied even the chance to try and find a matching kidney. Finding a donor is not an easy job. There are always more patients waiting for a kidney than there are willing and able donors. But there is hope. After a few tests needed to find a match are done, a kidney patient is placed on a waiting list. The wait can be long and it depends or urgency, age, and other medical problems. If a willing stranger happens to match that patient, a donation is possible. If the stranger happens to also match another patient who is in more urgent need of a transplant, or higher on the list, the patient must wait for a different donor. Kidneys can also come from deceased donors.  Even while on the list the patient is encouraged to try and find a donor on his own as this can sometimes shorten the wait time.  

Many patients in need of a kidney never actually find a donor even though they are on a list. However, they still have the security that, while on the list, there are people out there who are trying to help them find a match. Amelia Rivera and her family are on their own in this battle.

How much can you suffer before you really want to cut that pain out of your body? Would you be frustrated if your surgery is getting delayed? Would you ever even think of performing a surgery on yourself?

 A 63-year-old American man with a hernia plunged a butter knife into his abdomen to try to fix the problem, and later put a lit cigarette in the wound. 

A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or the fascia of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it.