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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on May 04, 2007, 01:10:50 PM
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He gave a stranger a kidney, and says he's done crazier things
BETH BRAGG
Anchorage Daily News
Published: May 4, 2007
The guys at Uncle Joe's Pizzeria on Tudor Road were telling stories one night about the craziest things they've ever done, when delivery man Billy Gibby mentioned the time he ripped out some stitches running a five-kilometer footrace a few weeks after donating a kidney.
"Say what?" said the guys. "You gave a kidney???"
Not only did Gibby give a kidney, he gave it to a complete stranger.
Not only did he give a kidney to a complete stranger, he found the recipient on the Internet the same way other guys find girlfriends there.
Not only did he give a kidney to a complete stranger he met on the Internet, he doesn't think that's the craziest thing he's ever done.
And you know, he might be right.
Gibby is one of those guys who seems either too good to be true or too weird for words.
He's 26, came to Anchorage with his divorced dad about eight years ago, earned his GED and has worked as a discount-store supervisor and pizza delivery man while pursuing a boxing career he hopes might take him somewhere someday.
A couple of years ago, inspired by professional boxers who wear temporary tattoos that advertise a sponsor, Gibby put his body up for bid on eBay. He wound up making a deal with an online casino that paid him to put a permanent tattoo on his back that says "GoldenPalace.com."
Gibby won't say how much he was paid to get the tattoo, but he will say why he got it. At the same time he was selling his skin, Gibby was trying to give away a kidney. He was a registered donor at matchingdonors.com, a nonprofit organization for people who need an organ and those willing to give one away. If Gibby found a recipient, the tattoo money would make up for the work he'd miss during surgery and recovery.
Gibby found a match in Kathy Lee, a 36-year-old from LaJolla, Calif. He made two trips to the San Diego hospital where the transplant took place two years ago this month, starting with a preliminary visit during which he underwent all kinds of tests, including psychological ones. Doctors wanted to make sure Gibby knew what he was doing.
So did his friends and family, who urged caution.
"My dad said it would be a big mistake down the road," Gibby said. "People said, 'What happens if you need one someday? Or someone in your family needs one?'
"Well, I guess I'd have to hope someone would do the same thing I did. You can't just not help other people because you're afraid."
Gibby talks as if his choice to give away a kidney was a no-brainer. In his mind, donating an organ was the obvious next step for someone who, motivated by his mother's heart troubles, began donating blood and volunteering for the heart association as a teenager. When he heard about matchingdonors.com, he didn't think twice before signing up as a donor.
"Thousands of people die each year because there's not enough kidneys," Gibby said. "To me, that's needless deaths. They all could survive if people would donate.
"Maybe people will look at me and think, that person donated and he's boxing and he's healthy -- if he can do that, I can donate blood."
Since his transplant, Gibby has fought twice at Thursday Night at the Fights and won both bouts. He might be the most gentle soul to ever put on a pair of boxing gloves.
He's been a vegetarian since age 14 -- "If I can eat other things, I don't want to take an animal's life," he said -- and he believes in reincarnation and the philosophy that good deeds done in this life will pay dividends in the next one.
Gibby and Lee were the fifth transplant pairing by matchingdonors.com, which went online in 2004 and has since coordinated 44 kidney transplants. Donors receive no compensation other than airfare to the city where the transplant takes place.
CEO/founder Paul Dooley said Gibby is the only Alaskan to give away an organ, but there are others among the 4,065 registered donors. No Alaskan has received an organ, he said, but a teacher from North Pole with polycystic kidney disease registered several weeks ago "and he's getting a lot of action." Dooley thinks the man will find a kidney soon.
As for Gibby, he isn't trying to recruit donors, but he hopes his story might inspire others to check the organ donor box on their driver's license or roll up their sleeve and give a pint of blood.
Asked if he's had any second thoughts in the two years since the transplant, Gibby mentions the permanent advertisement on his back but not the organ missing from his abdomen.
"Some day I might regret the tattoo," he said, "but I'm not gonna regret the kidney, ever."
Too good to be true, or too weird for words? Either way, you've got to admire the man's convictions.
Beth Bragg's opinion column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Her e-mail address is bbragg@adn.com.