Paul Bass Photo
Looney during a recent visit to the WNHH FM studio.
An “urgent” call went out Tuesday for a kidney donor for New Haven State Sen. Martin Looney.
Looney, a well-loved lifetime New Havener who serves as president pro tem of the State Senate, has suffered much of his life from Ankylosing Spondylitis.
Looney has been keeping to a full work schedule, according to his chief of staff, Vincent Mauro Jr.
“He was at work today cranking today. I expect he will e at work tomorrow. He has an unrelenting work ethic,” Mauro said.
Father James Manship of St. Rose of Lima Church, which Looney attends, posted the call for a kidney on the congregation’s Facebook page. It reads: “An important and urgent matter
“My dear brothers, Senator Martin Looney, a parishioner of Santa Rosa de Lima and great fighter for this community, is sick. His only kidney is failing. He needs a transplant. There’s no one in the family of him who has a kidney match.
“For more information, call the helpline of organ donation of the Yale [New Haven] Hospital, 1 – 866-925‑3897.
“Let us pray for Martin that you can find someone who can donate his kidney and a generous person that wants to help a neighbor in need.”
Looney told the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary that he will have to go on dialysis in a few weeks if a donor can’t be found, but that he’s feeling fine for now.
Looney filled in as governor last month when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman attended the Democratic National Convention. During an interview that week with WNHH radio, he said that he is interested in running for governor in two years if Malloy gets a job in a Clinton administration and Wyman chooses not to seek a full term in the office. (Wyman would become governor if Malloy leaves mid-term; Looney would become lieutenant governor.)
Click on or download the above audio file to hear that full interview.