David Hall, a writer and journalist, was hard at work at Microsoft in 1999, as it prepared to release Encarta, its digital multimedia encyclopedia. He’d been putting in extremely long hours, was going through a divorce and was a father of four children.

He worked all night and had breakfast, and just didn’t feel well at all. It was 6:38 a.m. — he remembers it well. He went to the hospital, his doctor told him gray was not a good color for him, and he woke up five days later in the intensive care unit. Both his kidneys had failed.

“I looked around the room and see all this equipment, and realized it was hooked up to me,” he said.

The doctors suspected the cause was hypertension – high blood pressure.

“Stress is the silent killer,” Hall said.

He already knew his kidney function was not 100 percent. Normal levels of creatinine in the blood are approximately 0.6 to 1.2 milligrams per deciliter in adult males — his was five. The kidneys filter out creatinine, a chemical waste molecule, and dispose of it in urine. Kidney failure can lead to a myriad of problems, including heart disease, diabetes and strokes, and people of color have three times more chance of developing other symptoms. Hall is black.

With both kidneys gone, Hall started the long journey of 10 years of kidney dialysis.

“Dialysis duplicates kidney function,” Hall said.

The kidneys eliminate waste from our blood. In dialysis, they took all the blood out of Hall’s body, cleansed it, and put it back in. Without dialysis, waste levels will build up and eventually kill the patient. Hall has lumps in his left arm from the insertion of special catheters for the blood to come in and out of. Hall spent six to eight hours, three days a week in dialysis.

“When you’re not in dialysis, you’re sleeping because it makes you very tired,” he said.

Because his condition varied so much, it was seven years before he finally got on a transplant list in the Pacific Northwest region. In year two of being sick he needed to work — at this point his body was adjusting to treatment he said. He worked in Reno in 2002 for nine months. While in Reno, he had a heart attack, as a result of the dialysis, and was in a coma for 22 days. His lab results all went to the Calif. region. For the next five years he made a point to have his labs sent to both districts to increase his odds of getting kidneys. During those five years he was considered only a candidate for a transplant because of his deteriorating condition.

He went back to Calif. to see his kids, and as he was about to return to Washington, he had a call from UCLA. They had two kidneys from a 21-year-old Orange County man. He was told they’d call him by 9 p.m. while the doctors verified if it was a match. At 11:09 p.m., he got the call — it was a match.

“The next day, June 19, 2010, my birthday, I was on the table,” he said. “I asked if we could pray, and 26 staff sang ‘How great is our God.’ Fifteen hours later I was singing, ‘Nothing is impossible.’ Ever since that day someone has crossed my path and asked for my advice and help (about transplants). A Ft. Lewis wife told me her husband was blind. Through a cornea transplant he can see again.”

That’s why he started a Washington State chapter of Transplant Recipients International Organization. With a background in business and a masters in systems management, he felt confident he could help spread the message that folks who need organ transplants are more than statistics. Every 12 minutes someone is added to the list of patients who need donated organs.

The website for UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) shows an up to the minute count of “transplant trends.” As of this writing, 119,068 people in the United States are on the transplant list, with 9,190 transplants performed from January to April of this year and 4,535 donors in the same time period.

TRIO is a national group, recognized by the Dept. of Health and the Dept. of Education. Right now, Hall is the only one with TRIO, Washington. He speaks at churches, civic groups, and toastmasters.

To register as an organ donor visit donatelifetoday.com/register online. Or, reach Hall at David.hall@trioseattle.org.

By the numbers:

65: Percent of the population registered as organ donors.

30,000: Number of organs burned or buried because the deceased didn’t discuss their wishes with their family.

8: number of lives one deceased organ donor can save; corneas, the middle ear, lungs, heart, blood vessels, liver, pancreas, kidneys, bone, bone marrow, skin and intestines can be transplanted.

60: procurement centers in the country.