Dennis McCarthy: Marine who served in Iraq needs a new kidney

Victoria, Jake and baby Ella Marie Chadwick.

It doesn't matter that he's so young - only 23 - or that he spent a year serving in Iraq.

Doesn't make a difference that U.S. Marine Sgt. Jake Chadwick made it home safe and married the girl he was engaged to - or that they've recently been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter.

None of it matters. Chadwick goes on the transplant list for a kidney at the University of San Diego Medical Center just like everybody else. No special treatment for veterans.

"It could be four or five years, but there are no guarantees," says his wife, Victoria, who grew up in Sherman Oaks. "Jake waits the same as a 70-year-old waits for a kidney."

With one big difference: Her husband's part of the biggest family in the world.

The military family. And they're trying to come to his aid.

Victoria Chadwick cradles the couple's 4-month-old baby daughter, Ella, in one arm Friday as she logs on to her computer to answer another batch of e-mails from people wanting to help and let her know their prayers are with her family.

It's been like this every day since Carolyn Blashek, founder of Operation Gratitude, recently sent out an e-mail blast to her thousands of volunteers to let them know one of their own needed help.

Many, like Victoria, have family and friends serving in the military. Operation Gratitude - which has mailed out more than 600,000 holiday care packages to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan - is a big part of their

lives.

"I knew what it took for Jake to enlist and go to war," says the Taft High School grad. "I wanted to support my husband and all our troops.

"These people (at Operation Gratitude) became my instant family. I received a huge amount of comfort and support being around them."

When Jake got home from Iraq in 2009, the couple married and moved to an apartment off-base near Camp Pendleton where he is still stationed.

Jake's headaches started last September and got worse. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong.

"He was scheduled for a biopsy on Oct. 21, the same day I went into labor," Victoria says. "We were ready to go to the hospital for Jake when Ella made her entrance into the world."

The happiest time of their lives soon became one of the saddest. Jake's kidneys were failing. He would need a transplant. Nobody in his family was a match.

Today, the young Marine sergeant with blood type O goes to dialysis three days a week, four hours a day. He works two days a week at the joint military services processing center in San Diego.

He got home Friday from dialysis treatments tired and weak, but before lying down he read the latest e-mails his wife had received from their extended family.

Hang in there, they say. Maybe they can help. A few people say they are getting tested to see if they're a match.

"It's so overwhelming, all this support from strangers, a lot of it based on the fact I'm a Marine," Jake says.

"I'm not asking anyone to give me a kidney. I have a hard time asking anyone for anything. But it shines through when I read all the e-mails.

"My military family wants to help," he says.

To reach the Chadwick family, e-mail jvechadwick10@hotmail.com.

Dennis McCarthy's column appears in the Los Angeles Daily News on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

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