You wouldn’t expect a vacation request to your supervisor to be life-changing, but for one local couple, it might mean they can finally take their two kids on a vacation without having to get back the next day for a dialysis session.
I popped in at a local assisted living to drop off a flyer and a friend—let’s call her Laura — who works there was sporting a dramatically shorter hairdo. It looked great on her, and as I complimented her new look, I asked what inspired it. I expected to hear something along the lines of “I wanted something a little easier to maintain” but she surprised me and said she was expecting a call to donate one of her kidneys any day now and thought having less hair to deal with might be easier during her recovery.
Of course, I was curious and asked which one of her family members was the lucky recipient, and she surprised me even more by sharing it was going to a co-worker’s husband.
Laura explained that a co-worker she supervises came in to share that she might need to take two to four weeks off on short notice if they got a call from the transplant center. Turns out her husband — a veteran who ran marathons, took care of himself, never drank or smoked — had been on the transplant list for four years, hoping for a match.
Many of us draw a firm line between our work and personal lives, so Laura had no idea her co-worker had been going through this. The husband had helped at events at her workplace and she knew he was a good man, so she started reading up on what it takes to donate a live kidney, just in case she could be the match. Laura talked with her family, who were a little nervous but proud of her for being willing to help. She filled out the live-donor application and went through extensive testing to check to see if she was able to donate. There were physical tests, but also mental and emotional tests to see how she’d feel if things went wrong and the kidney didn’t work or she never saw the recipient again. Not only did she pass all the tests, but she was a match for her co-worker’s husband.
Now they both have to do a few things in the weeks ahead to make sure their bodies are in the best shape possible for the surgery. She’ll be flown to Texas for the big day because that’s where he’s been on the organ transplant list.
“You each have your own transplant team,” she explained. “Mine will be focused only on my care and they make sure no one treats you like a body part — you are every bit as important, and if for any reason you change your mind, even at the last minute, they will respect your decision.”
My husband and I both have the donor box checked on our drivers’ licenses, but I have to admit, the thought of giving away any part of my body while I’m still alive, other than donating blood, is hard to imagine. Once they take your kidney out and give it to someone else, you can’t ask for it back if you change your mind later. But I can also imagine what an amazing feeling it would be to give something that could change another person’s life so significantly, rippling outward to touch their family and friends with the gift of more years with someone they love.
I looked up organ donation statistics when I got home and learned over 103,000 people are waiting on the national transplant list. Of those, 17 people die each day waiting for an organ that matches what they need. Over 46,000 transplants were performed last year, but that’s less than half of the need out there. What surprised me the most was how many folks on the list are waiting for a kidney. Over 88,000 people need a kidney or 85% of those on the transplant wait list. Liver is second-highest at 10,000, followed by 3,300 for hearts and 1,000 for lungs.
Getting a match for an organ means a better life for those on the waiting list, but getting an organ from a living donor gives you an even better short- and long-term survival rate, according to the Mayo Clinic website. Donors can successfully live with one kidney. The other organ picks up the slack and grows a little bigger to take on the job. Interestingly, you can also donate a segment of your liver and it re-generates as well to almost its same size. Tissue and bone are also on the living donor list.
Typical wait list time is three to five years, which must feel like forever when something is failing in your body. Her co-worker’s husband has been at the top of the list for the last year, life revolving around appointments to the dialysis center to keep him going while he waits and hopes for a gift that could change all of their lives. And while dialysis is a life-saving intervention, it’s hard on your body. The average dialysis patient lives just five to 10 years. Now it looks like he’ll be one of the lucky ones who finally gets his name crossed off the list.
Laura knows she’ll have some recovery time ahead of her after the donation. It’s surgery after all. But in a few months, life will get back to normal, her body will recover and she won’t even know the kidney’s missing. But her co-worker’s family will always remember.
To find out more about becoming an organ donor, visit OrganDonor.gov.