LJ Dong said some people refer to her as “The Queen with One Bean” due to her success on the pageant stage after going through multiple medical episodes that resulted in her giving up one of her kidneys. Behind the title is a story of pain, persistence and a medical battle that defines her to this day.
Dong, who was born in Italy and moved to Westbury before she turned one, works as a substance abuse counselor, but she said she wasn’t always involved in public service.
She married in 2013 while working in the nursing field, which was followed by a European honeymoon and the couple buying a home together in Levittown.
Dong said her life then took a turn when she had a workplace accident that left her with a broken spine. She said she was in a wheelchair for over two years….
“My life shrank to hospitals, wheelchairs, and the quiet isolation that takes root when pain becomes your full-time companion,” she said.
Dong said that despite fully healing from her injury, she still felt as if something was wrong. She said she experienced rapid weight loss and pain in her abdomen and side that interrupted her daily life.
She said several doctors dismissed her symptoms, but she was eventually diagnosed with a flurry of diseases, including Nutcracker Syndrome, a rare condition where arteries in the abdomen pinch the vein that carries blood away from the left kidney. She said she has needed 16 surgeries to deal with her medical problems.
Dong said that due to her past medical experiences, she was not keen on going through another risky operation. She said one surgeon explained to her that removing the compressed kidney could relieve her symptoms, but donating it was not considered a standard option.
“If removing this kidney could save my life, why couldn’t it save someone else’s?” she asked.
Dong said she began insisting on donating her kidney, and despite receiving multiple rejections, one surgeon told her that it was possible, leading to her becoming one of the first known Nutcracker Syndrome patients to donate a kidney as part of her treatment in 2018.
“As I woke up from surgery, the crushing pain that had ruled my life for years was suddenly gone, and in another room of the same hospital, a woman was waking up with my kidney, giving her a second chance at life,” she said.
Dong said she began being contacted by others with Nutcracker Syndrome after the surgery, leading her to become a donor mentor and rare-disease guide for the National Kidney Registry, where she helps patients understand their unique medical options.
She then decided to step onto the pageant stage, which led to her being crowned American Miss National Mrs. 2024. Dong said being a pageant queen was something that she had never previously considered, but wanted something to look forward to after enduring all of her medical experiences.
“These moments weren’t about glamour, they were about visibility,” she said.
Dong said the pageant victory gave her a platform and led to her continuing to walk the runway at fashion shows, attend red carpet events and be on billboards and magazine covers, all while still promoting organ donations and health.
“You are allowed to rewrite your medical story, even when the system tells you no,” she said.
