Wichita chef, 39, needs his second kidney transplant, shares details of his donor search
On Tuesday afternoon, well-known Wichita chef Josh Rathbun shared a vulnerable post on his personal Facebook page: For the second time in his life, he’s in need of a kidney transplant, and the quickest way for him to get one is for someone to volunteer one of theirs.
In less than 24 hours, that post was shared nearly 700 times.
By Wednesday morning, Rathbun said, he’d already heard from a few friends and acquaintances saying they wanted to help and that they’d started the process to find out if they’d be viable donors.
“We’re really excited about it,” said Rathbun, 39, who owns the popular downtown restaurant Lotte at 320 S. Market. St. “It sounds like people are already calling into KU.”
Rathbun agreed on Wednesday to share details about his latest battle with kidney disease, which has left him on daily dialysis and has affected his ability to work and be a father to his two kids — Charlotte, age 10, and Noah, age 7.
He’s willing to talk, he said, not only because he’s in serious need of help but also because he wants to raise awareness about what it’s like to live with kidney disease.
“It’s important for me that people learn about what lots of people are experiencing and no one really understands,” he said.
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Transplant No. 1
Rathbun, who grew up in Wichita, was born with kidney disease, he said. It caught up to him just as he was starting his restaurant career at age 27.
He was working as a chef in Australia when his feet started to ache. But he blew it off, chalking the pain up to hours working in a kitchen.
In fact, his kidneys were failing, he learned, and he needed a transplant. When Rathbun was 29, he got the operation after his cousin, Brett Rathbun, volunteered to donate one of his kidneys.
After that, Rathbun got on with his life, managing his disease with medication. Having worked at several top restaurants in Denver, Rathbun moved back to Wichita to settle down with his wife, Andrea, and his young family. In 2016, he was hired as the executive chef at the Ambassador Hotel’s Siena Tuscan Steakhouse, where he led the kitchen for five years.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit during Rathbun’s stint at Sienna, and he caught the virus twice: First in September of 2020 then again in December of the following year.
COVID-19 can lead to kidney damage, and Rathbun’s doctors told him that his rounds with the virus had affected his donor kidney.
Rathbun always knew he’d need another transplant someday, especially because he’d had his first one at such a young age.
“I wanted it to last longer,” he said. “The process of the transplant — it’s not easy. It’s tough. It’s a major, major surgery that knocks you down for a good three months or so.”
‘We knew this was coming’
In April — less than six months after he opened his first solo restaurant, the farm-to-table hot spot Lotte — Rathbun was forced to start daily kidney dialyses. Though he’s been able to do it at home while he sleeps — a process called automated peritoneal dialysis — it’s been tough, he said.
He still goes to work five days a week, but in recent months, he’s had to check out more often and leave the restaurant in the hands of his trusted chef de cuisine, Zakk Thomas, and his front-of-house manager. Wife Andrea also is a presence in the restaurant, he said.
“Honestly, I’m not worried about the business because we have a very good staff, and I know that they’ll be able to handle things,” he said. “We knew this was coming, so we put people in place that we trust and that can handle the workload.”
Rathbun was able to post his plea on Tuesday because he’d just been added to the transplant list at the University of Kansas Medical Center, which required that he meet a certain number of criteria, that he undergo medical scans and an interview process, and that he be approved by a transplant committee.
The list he’s now on means that he’s eligible to receive a kidney from someone who has died and donated their organs. But there’s no way to know how long it might take for his turn to come up, he said. Sometimes, it takes years.
Those who need kidney transplants soon learn, though, that there’s a more efficient process.
“The quickest way is the living donor — someone who calls the center and says they want to donate,” Rathbun said. “...I’m looking for someone to do that for me.”
Rathbun is able to continue indefinitely with dialysis while he waits for a kidney, but it takes a toll. He struggles with water retention, and his body can’t keep up with the demands of being a chef, a business owner, a husband and a father.
He’s hoping that his post helps him find a donor kidney more quickly. But he also hopes that it helps more people understand chronic kidney disease, which affects an estimated 37 million Americans.
“For me, a big part of my mission since the transplant has been working with the Kidney Foundation,” Rathbun said. “They have always instilled in me this idea of raising awareness and teaching people about kidney disease wherever I can.”
Anyone interested in donating a kidney or learning about the process can call the KU Medical Center at 913-588-0266.
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 2:43 PM.
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