Peabody resident Shannon Barrios is asking the community to help save her boyfriend’s life. His name is Fernando Candelario, and he needs a kidney transplant.
Barrios thought back to November 2021, a week before her boyfriend’s birthday, when it all started.
“He got really, really sick, and we thought it was just the stomach bug because everybody gets it, and he never really gets sick,” she said.
But after a few days of staying home from work, Candelario finally let Barrios take him to the hospital, where they learned that both of his kidneys had failed due to his high blood pressure.
“So he went through the whole process where they had to do a little surgery on him to put a Foley catheter in him, to start emergency dialysis, per se,” Barrios said.
She added that he later had a really bad seizure which the doctors said led to congestive heart failure. Barrios said for about three weeks, it seemed everything was great.
“Numbers were looking good. The only numbers that we were having trouble with was the phosphorus,” Barrios said.
Then, Candelario had a “really bad, bad seizure.”
“I had to call 911… I just held him on his side until the ambulance got there, and they hauled him off to the hospital,” Barrios recalled. “He didn’t remember his name, who I was. He didn’t know where he was at, what date it was. He didn’t know who the president was. He didn’t know anything.”
Since then, the two have moved from Florida to Massachusetts to be closer to better medical resources than were available down south, while still remaining near family. They’ve been in Peabody since October 2024.
Barrios said Candelario is currently doing peritoneal dialysis treatments 11 hours a day, seven days a week. Candelario called the treatments “very rough and tiresome.”
“Medically speaking, it just basically flushes out all the toxins in his body that your kidneys are supposed to,” Barrios explained.
Barrios described her boyfriend as “a very happy-go-lucky person.” She said her prayer is that somebody wants “to be a life-saving hero, to help somebody who’s fun and loving and kind continue on in life and possibly see his 40s.” Candelario is currently 29.
Barrios and Candelario have been together for almost 10 years, and Barrios reflected on how hard it is to watch a loved one get sick.
“I see it firsthand. I’m front and center. I’ve got a front row seat in this. I’m a hard person to make cry, but when I watch him go into convulsions, these convulsions are just so terrifying. I mean, I used to watch my brother have seizures, but the seizures that dialysis patients have, it’s something that’s unexplainable,” Barrios said.
She added, “When you sit here daily and you wonder when is your last day with somebody that you’ve loved for the last nine and a half years, it’s just, I can’t imagine people who’ve been together for 20 years or 30 years, and they’re having to say goodbye because we don’t have enough people in this world who want to donate and save a life.”
She also relayed an important piece of advice to the Peabody community: “Take care of your kidneys. Eat right, exercise, and just in general, take care of yourself.”
Candelario said that he wants people to not be scared of doctors and go get themselves checked.
“Dialysis isn’t something that (neither) me nor him would want our worst enemy to be on,” Barrios said. “We don’t have any enemies, but if we did, we wouldn’t grant this on them or their family, man, because I have watched him crash many times, and it’s just heartaching.”
A man of faith, Candelario also emphasized that God is what will get them through this hardship.
“If you have to do this, I can guarantee you God is going to get you through it,” Barrios said. “And the reason why I can guarantee you is because I didn’t think I was going to make it through it for him. Because I’ve had to hold his hands and watch nurses cut on him and insert things in him right in front of my face. Very traumatizing by the way, and I wouldn’t wish that on any other woman in this world.”
Barrios mentioned that, just this year, she and Candelario have lost three friends to kidney failure. She mentioned that some have said not let that bother her, but she spoke candidly on how that’s just not possible.
“It’s kind of hard when you’ve been with somebody for so long and you actually really, truly, deeply love and care for them, (somebody) you would do anything in this world for, except obviously give them a kidney because you’re not the same blood match, and you’ve already asked everybody in his family to donate a kidney to him, and they’re not a match either,” Barrios said.
Barrios said anyone with O Positive or O Negative blood type can be a match for Candelario, and she is hoping there is a person out there who will “help be somebody’s angel.” Anyone who is interested in more information or potentially donating their kidney should reach out to Barrios via email at kidneycoachbar.s@gmail.com.
