In a message sent from her hospital bed, Bijou Phillips has sent a message to the world, begging for a kidney donor. She is currently on dialysis at ORE Kidney at UCLA Health after her previous kidney transplant was rejected. According to her doctor, time is of the essence.

Phillips made her appeal for an organ donor online, using her Instagram platform to make her situation known. She was born with underdeveloped kidneys and has struggled since she was young. She had a previous kidney transplant in 2017, donated by a friend. However, now, years later, the kidney has been rejected, leaving her in a vulnerable state, hoping for another donor.

Bijou is known for her work as a model, musician, and actress. She has had roles in Black and White and Almost Famous. However, now she is making an appeal for a kidney as a mother, an aunt, a sister, and a friend. Her humanizing post shows her in a hospital bed with her child. She is appealing to people, not as a celebrity, but as a single mother of a young child.

Her previous transplant gave her 8 years with a partially functioning kidney. Although, as she points out in her Instagram post, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Because her body didn’t fully accept the kidney, she was plagued with health issues during that time. She states that she suffered from a BK virus, which led to antibody and cellular rejection. Now she is left with a failed kidney and is living on a dialysis machine.

Bijou Phillips has asked people to please come forward and add their names to the live donor list. “I am currently under care of Dr Anjay Rastogi at UCLA and back on dialysis. Please help me find a living donor so that I can have more time with my daughter, family, and friends,” she states in the post.

When she had her first transplant in 2017, it was revealed that she was born with small kidneys. A representative for Phillips spoke to People at the time. They explained that she had kept her kidney issues quiet and instead privately dealt with the issue. She was regularly on dialysis and tried to lead a healthy lifestyle. This included a vegan diet and plenty of exercise.

Since her ex-husband, Danny Masterson, was jailed, she has been left to care for her child alone. She needs to find a kidney donor urgently so she can provide her child with care.