WS Chronicle

Donald Dulin is a hardworking family man in need of some help. For the last couple of years, Dulin has been on dialysis and needs a new kidney to get his life back to some sense of normalcy.

Dulin is a native of Winston-Salem and grew up in the Belview community. He is a Parkland High School graduate of the class of 1988. He worked for Hanes Inc. for 19 years and was with the City of Winston-Salem prior to going out on disability.

Dulin was diagnosed with kidney failure a few years ago due to high blood pressure and the medications he was taking for other health conditions he was having at the time. His kidneys ultimately failed in 2019.

So far, no one in the family has been identified as a match. Initially Dulin didn’t want to start dialysis, but after becoming ill several times due to his condition, he chose to do so.

“I didn’t want to do it, and I waited because I wasn’t going to do it, but after three ambulance rides, I had to do it,” said Dulin about starting dialysis. “It was very shocking.”

“His main concern when he had to finally make that decision was working; he wouldn’t be able to work and help support the family,” added his wife Angie Dulin. “At the time we had both our children, Mia and Donald Jr., in the house and that was probably the hardest thing for him to deal with.

“We were being told that he was getting to that point where he needs to take dialysis and he didn’t want to do that, naturally. I don’t know if you know anyone that has been on dialysis, but it’s a pretty draining process that you put yourself through.”

Dulin has to endure dialysis three times a week for three and a half hours per session. The process is very draining and leaves him with very little energy to do anything else for the remainder of the day.

“It drains you and once you go through dialysis, you want to sleep all day,” he said. “It comes in spurts energy-wise, and the only thing that helped me is that I started exercising a little bit.”

His condition has not only impacted Dulin, but also his family as a whole. They have walked this journey alongside him the entire way, hoping he would get better sooner than later.

“It was frightening, and we are a praying family, so we did a lot of that and a lot of leaning on each other,” said Mrs. Dulin. “What the tipping point was, he had already been in the hospital twice already in 2019 and that last time he had to go to the hospital just because he felt poorly.

“When your kidneys aren’t working, your blood is not being cleaned. Not only do you not produce urine, but the cleaning of your blood doesn’t happen, so your body is basically full of poison and he felt that. So, for us, seeing him not well and seeing him not working, we were just really worried about him. I did not want to pressure him into taking dialysis, understanding the toll that would take on him.”

According to Mrs. Dulin, her husband had become so sick that the doctors informed them that if he had not started dialysis when he did, that he would have been dead within a week.  

The Dulin family attends Revealed Church of Christ here in the city and Dulin is a deacon as well. The Dulins stated their faith in God really helped them through the tough times.

“It got me through. I had to trust in Him, and I had to lean on Him in prayer, and it brought me through,” Dulin said about his faith.

Mrs. Dulin added, “It was a source of strength for us and then to have a community of people that supported us through prayer, love and food. It made all the difference when he was hospitalized those times. They came through for us, so having that family to have your back and to draw strength from helped us get through it all.”

Dulin is listed on the donor list at Atrium at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Anyone who may be interested in possibly becoming a donor can contact the Dulin family at 336-655-4225 or send an email to livingdonation@wakehealth.edu and ask for a living donor questionnaire. After completing the questionnaire, they would need to include Dulin’s name and birthdate, which is June 23, 1969.

“It’s a big ask and so we have gone a long time without openly asking, but having been on dialysis since 2019, he is ready to try and have a life again,” said Mrs. Dulin.