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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on July 22, 2009, 09:57:42 AM
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Lompoc woman donates kidney to Ventura man
By Glenn Wallace/Staff Writer/gwallace@santamariatimes.com
What if someone you barely knew offered you one of their organs?
That is just what happened, when Jerry Glover of Ventura received a donated kidney from Lompoc’s Lori Caldwell last month.
“Made my life just a hundred percent better,” Glover said, describing how the donation freed him from endless, draining dialysis treatments.
“It’s not as big a thing as it sounds like. The surgery was nothing,” Caldwell, 47, said, downplaying her actions.
Since the kidney transplant surgery June 24 at the UCLA Medical Center, Caldwell said, she has completely recovered, and enjoys the same kidney function she did with two.
“It’s amazing we have two kidneys when you can function just fine with one,” Caldwell said, describing the surgery — four laproscopic incisions less than an inch long, and one three-inch cut along the lower abdomen where the kidney is removed. She was out of the hospital in three days, and refers to it as the easiest surgery of her life.
The donation happened about a year after the two met and began talking at the funeral of Glover’s father, who was also named Jerry.
“I was real close to his dad,” Caldwell said. “Big Jerry talked about his son so much, I felt like I knew him all these years.”
In a way, she really had. Caldwell said a baby sitter for her daughter actually dated Glover. “So it actually goes back 25 years.”
When his own kidneys stopped working in 2006, the 46-year-old Glover began dialysis treatment.
Though dialysis will remove water and some toxins from the blood, it is not a perfect solution, and leaves patients exhausted after each treatment, which must be done, on average, every two to three days.
Glover said he got on the kidney transplant list, but the wait was estimated to be seven years or longer.
“By then, some patients can become so sick that they’re not good candidates for surgery anymore,” Caldwell said.
She would know, having worked as a bus driver for medical patients to and from dialysis treatment years earlier.
After hearing about Glover’s situation, and realizing they shared a blood type, Caldwell told him she would be interested in looking into donating a kidney for him.
Glover said he was tentative at first about the offer.
“You don’t want to push anybody. If they have any doubt in their mind, you don’t want them to do it.”
“But I called her later, got to know her, and she was serious,” Glover said.
For a year, Caldwell and Glover took a series of tests to confirm that her kidney would have a good chance of being compatible with Glover, that she could live without complication with only one kidney, and that both individuals could handle the strain of the surgery.
Months went by, but the doctors finally announced that everything looked fine to proceed.
That day, Caldwell said, she did feel some nerves about the donation, but she felt calmer as the surgery date approached.
With the help and support of her mother, aunt and best friend, Caldwell said, they made the drive down to UCLA, and had the surgery.
Glover is currently taking heavy doses of anti-rejection drugs, and has yet to return to work, but says he already feels immensely better, and has kept in touch with Caldwell, the two of them calling every other day.
“Obviously now we have a pretty good friendship,” Glover said. “I’m sure we’ll be friends forever now.”
Caldwell is not the only Lompoc woman to generously give an organ to a friend in need. In February, a similar story occurred between two Lompoc residents, Rachel Viramontes and John Ruckman.
Viramontes, 29, and her husband met Ruckman and his wife Carri through co-workers, and two couples became close friends.
“We just started hanging out — game night, watching ‘24’ once a week, regular potlucks,” Viramontes said.
Then the news came that John Ruckman’s kidneys were failing due to a hereditary disease.
To save money for the medical costs, the Ruckmans moved into the basement unit of the Viramontes’ house. Within a few months, the 30-year-old Ruckman had to go on dialysis.
Meanwhile, initial tests showed that Viramontes was an excellent donation candidate.
“I read all the information, I talked to my doctor, and I talked to my family,” Viramontes said.
Viramontes, who now lives in Concord, Calif., also said it was easier than she thought to give a kidney.
“You just have to be willing to help,” Viramontes said. “It was nice to help out a friend.”
July 21, 2009
http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2009/07/21/news/centralcoast/news05.txt