Montville — A father who was recently reunited with twin sons he didn't know he had is now in need of a kidney transplant. The sons, however, are not donor matches. 

David Jakobot, 63, met his sons Joe and Louis Rogulski, 46, just under a year ago, after being separated for over four decades.

After Joe did a 23andMe and Ancestry.com search in 2018, the twins found that their birth father was Jakobot, as reported by The Day. The twins connected with cousins through Facebook and eventually contacted Jakobot via phone. After a paternity test confirmed Jakobot was the father, he flew to Connecticut to meet his sons and celebrate.

Jakobot lives in Dallas, Texas, but is originally from East Lyme. Jakobot was widowed and had lost a son, Stephen, to a motor vehicle crash in 2013.

He had no idea that he had become a father at 17 to twin boys. The twins did not meet their biological father until they were 44. Since Jakobot met his twin boys, he has experienced less loneliness. Joe and Louis spent Thanksgiving with their father last year and call him often.

Around the same time he met his new family, Jakobot was diagnosed with stage IV kidney disease, but kept his condition quiet. Jakobot has dialysis every day and is waiting for an O-blood kidney donor. Jakobot can accept O-negative and O-positive kidneys according to his sister, Sue Cash.

Cash posted about Jakobot's need for a transplant on Facebook on May 29, encouraging her friends and family to spread the word. The post has been shared over 400 times and has over 100 comments of people willing to donate.

Jakobot's son, Joe, expressed disappointment about not being able to donate his kidney for his father. However, he said that the response to Cash's post shows that his father doesn't have to go through it alone.

So far, Cash said there are five promising candidates for a kidney transplant. However, the process for approving a transplant is a long journey.

"There are three main requirements" for a transplant, Cash said. They need to have "no high blood pressure, no diabetes, and their BMI must be under 33."

Other conditions for a donation to be considered include being between the ages of 18 and 65, not having hepatitis or HIV and not having heart or liver diseases. If he or she meets the criteria, the candidate then has to have a series of blood and urine tests to evaluate potential viruses.

The candidates also need to undergo psychological and phsyical evaluations to ensure the safety of both Jakobot and the donor.

"This experience is really eye-opening because 117,000 people per year wait for transplants, but only 17,000 recieve them," Joe said. "Ten to 20 people die per day because they need organs."

Cash said most of the inquirers know Jakobot personally and want to help as much as possible.

"The response has been overwhelming," Cash said. "Usually social media is so negative but this (response) has been so positive for us."

n.intern@theday.com