WPSD‘s Johnette Worak will take a break from her morning and mid-day anchor duties this summer to donate a kidney to her adult son, who suffers from cystinuria, a condition that leaves patients with chronic kidney stones.
Worak and her son, Rodney (pictured here), will undergo surgery tomorrow at the University of Kentucky Transplant Center. Rodney was diagnosed as a teenager, Worak wrote on the WPSD website. “Last October, two weeks after he got married, his kidneys shut down. We’ve been working toward transplant surgery ever since, and if all goes well, it will be almost as if Rodney’s kidneys never failed. (The success rate is 95 percent in our favor.)”
Worak, who is also the NBC affiliate’s medical reporter, expects to return to her anchoring duties in August. “Certainly not going to be fun, but we think it’s going to be worth it!” She wrote. “In the meantime, we hope you’ll keep us in your thoughts and prayers.”