A South Philadelphia man is blitzing the city with stickers in hopes he’ll find a kidney donor

South Philly resident Dave Petersen is on an unusual, quasi-guerrilla marketing campaign.

He’s slapping “NEEDS A KIDNEY” stickers on as many Philadelphia street poles, train stations, and bathrooms in hip and trendy bars as he can — yes, even bars, he’s desperate and a living match could be anywhere. Just a few weeks ago, Petersen begged for a kidney on stage at Kung Fu Necktie.

“I’ve been putting up stickers anywhere and everywhere, completely indiscriminately,” said Petersen, a 29-year-old with polycystic kidney disease, a condition that forced the removal of his kidneys earlier this year and prompted his search for a new organ. “You never know when one person might feel compelled to reach out and that person might be the one with the kidney that works best for me.”

Newer versions of the stickers have a photo of Petersen and a summary of his condition with an email should anyone want to reach out. An older version, still on display in places, doesn’t have much information or make the seriousness of the call out clear. It reads “Hallucinogenic Bulb needs a kidney” in a custom font, with instructions to reach out by email in the event someone thinks they can help. Hallucinogenic Bulb is the noise music project Petersen started in 2016, and he figured people might recognize the band name, or at least pay more attention, than if the sticker just had his name.

Petersen was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease at 18. Clusters of cysts that formed around his kidneys were so large that the organs eventually had to be removed in January, he said. Upon removal, Peterson learned his kidneys weighed 66 pounds.

The illness is considered an “inherited condition,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Petersen said his grandfather, father, and aunt had the condition.

Petersen said his quality of life has significantly declined in recent years. He started dialysis July 2023 and he continues going three days a week. He said that his mental health plummeted for a while but that he is doing better with the help of anti-depressants and therapy. Still, Peterson feels the pressure of time.

Finding a donor through the national waiting list for the deceased donor kidney typically takes three to five years because demand outpaces supply and because some people who want to donate may be excluded because of conditions like diabetes or cancer.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, people can live on dialysis for five to 10 years, depending on a patient’s health. Some people have been able to live with the treatment for up to 30 years.

But the procedure is grueling and Petersen, who said he doesn’t have an estimate on how long he can live on dialysis, doesn’t want to “wither away and die,” so he’s being proactive and trying to find a living donor.

Still, it’s an arduous process and the outreach falls on the patient. A Brigantine mayor’s family paid for a billboard and started a Facebook group to find a potential donor, a Long Island man took out an ad in Times Square, and another man took out ads on the MBTA in Boston to find his wife a kidney.

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Petersen’s stickers are not as flashy as a billboard but he has made sure to get them far and wide. He’s stuck some up in Egg Harbor and mailed them to friends in nearly 20 states. Since he started his campaign last October, Petersen believes he’s distributed thousands of stickers.

Petersen said some people have reached out as a result and he’ll direct them to the transplant center he’s working with where they can receive more information about the process and fill out a pre-screening form. By design, the evaluation process is done with a built-in firewall between the potential donor and recipient. In addition to testing for compatibility, transplant centers offer financial consultations — donors are responsible for lost wages and possible follow-up care — as well as psychological evaluations. Though most people can live a healthy life with one kidney, these efforts are to ensure the potential donor isn’t pressured into making a decision.

Petersen doesn’t know how close he is to finding a donor because the strict rules around donation and HIPAA concerns limit the information his doctors can give him about whether anyone is testing on his behalf.

“I won’t actually know until I get the magical phone call,” he said.

But Petersen is not giving up, determined to slap more stickers across the city. He’s also working on a goregrind album about the experience.