Don't Let Me Die': Port Woman Battles Kidney Failure

Port Washington - Saukville, WI Patch | Lyssa Beyer

Photo: After having fought several diseases for the past seven years, Tammy Brumm was also diagnosed with kidney failure. Now, she faces regular dialysis treatments while she works to be added to the list of more than 90,000 nationwide awaiting a transplant. 

For the past seven years, Port Washington resident Tammy Brumm has struggled with a number of diseases, life-threatening and otherwise.

She had 14 hospital stays last year — not including emergency room visits — and now spends three days a week receiving dialysis treatments after "waking up" with end-stage renal disease about one year ago. ESRD is "when the kidneys are no longer able to work at a level needed for day-to-day life," according to the National Library of Medicine.

Kidney failure, at age 36.

"I was lying in my bed dying, and I didn't even realize it," Brumm said. "Instantly, the first thing I thought of were my kids — I have to be here for my kids. I looked at Rob (my husband) and said, 'Don't let me die.'"

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