Nicholas Morey was on duty with the Rhode Island National Guard when a strange headache hit him. Before he knew it, he was at the hospital and told his kidneys were failing. The 27-year-old Pawtucket police officer and Cumberland resident was diagnosed with kidney failure in June, and he has spent the months since juggling a demanding patrol job with a punishing dialysis schedule while he and his family search for a living donor.
Morey said he was told at the hospital that his kidneys were failing, a diagnosis that followed major fatigue he had been experiencing even before he started dialysis treatment, according to The Valley Breeze. He was prescribed medications after the diagnosis that made it difficult to keep up with his normal activities, and he was placed on light daytime duty, mostly desk work, according to Pawtucket Police Lieutenant Michael Cioe.
A Department Rallying Around One of Its Own
Morey was sworn in as a Pawtucket patrol officer in May 2025 and now works second shift, from 4 p.m. until midnight. Cioe said Morey was sometimes told to stay home because he worked so hard, even as he dealt with his diagnosis, and Morey has said his colleagues treated him like a longtime member of the department rather than a rookie. Justin Gould, a Pawtucket police sergeant, is one of Morey's second-shift supervisors.
Outside work, Morey has found comfort from a new dog named Rondo, who the officer says has helped him get through the hardest stretches of treatment. Three days a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday — he travels to Providence for dialysis sessions that can run up to four hours each, treatment that the same report notes leaves him exhausted afterward.
Family Testing Falls Short, So the Search Goes Public
Morey said family members stepped up to be tested as potential donors, but none qualified because of their own prior health histories. With relatives ruled out, his mother turned to social media, sharing a flyer publicizing her son's search for a kidney — a post that has since drawn a flood of inquiries from potential donors, per the same account.
Morey has begun the transplant process at the Rhode Island Hospital Transplant Center and is listed on Brown University Health's living donor program as a stage 5 renal failure patient. He has encouraged anyone considering donation to call the center directly to learn more about what the process involves. Sarah Gibb, identified as clinical transplant coordinator for the living donor program, can be reached at 401-444-3284 for information on kidney donation, though an earlier 2021 column in The Newport Daily News listed a different number, 401-444-3091, for a Sarah Gibb identified then as a Rhode Island Hospital transplant coordinator.
What Donating Actually Involves
Brown University Health, which oversees the transplant center, says people interested in altruistic kidney donation can contact the Transplant Center at Rhode Island Hospital for information and a screening questionnaire. A potential non-directed donor's initial screening includes an interview and a meeting with a nurse coordinator or physician, covering the pre-operative evaluation, the surgery and its risks, recovery time, potential long-term complications, and possible donor costs, according to Brown University Health.
The health system says Rhode Island Hospital performs roughly 50 to 60 kidney transplant procedures a year, with about half of those kidneys coming from living donors. Living donors generally mean a far shorter wait for recipients — about two to three months, Brown University Health says, compared with estimates elsewhere. The Valley Breeze's report on Morey cites an estimate that people waiting for a kidney may wait five to seven years, while a separate Valley Breeze article on twin East Providence brothers who received kidneys from local mothers put the typical wait for a deceased-donor kidney at three-and-a-half to four years — a reminder that wait-time estimates vary depending on the source and circumstances.
Not the First Local Search for a Lifesaving Match
Not the First Local Search for a Lifesaving Match Other local kidney-donor stories have had happier endings: East Providence twin brothers Alex and Nick Peguero were reported to be finally off dialysis after receiving kidney donations from two local mothers.
The search for donors isn't limited to Rhode Island. In Virginia, retired York-Poquoson sheriff's deputy Troy Lyons was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease in 2023 and began dialysis in January 2025, according to The Virginian-Pilot, and has likewise been publicly seeking a donor. For now, Morey continues his three-times-a-week routine in Providence, leaning on his department, his family and his dog while he waits for word of a match.
