Friend's kidney becomes life-changing gift

[okarol]

Friend's kidney becomes life-changing gift

Sarah Avery | McClatchy Newspapers
    February 10, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. - An instant bond of friendship formed between Lori Christian and Marie Molin when they met through their children eight years ago.

Molin taught Christian's youngest child in preschool and kindergarten, and the two women had one of those small-world ties where other family members had known each other for years.

But as tight as they had grown, Christian and Molin are even more connected now. Last fall, Molin donated one of her kidneys to Christian, who was quietly dying from a degenerative kidney disease.

"I don't know how I can repay her," Christian, 47, says. "The fact is, this will give me a quality of life I never thought I could have."

The act of generosity, while not rare, is uncommon, given the need for kidneys and other organs. And among blacks, the need is even more acute. Because kidney disease is three times more prevalent among blacks than whites -- a result, often, of higher rates of contributing causes such as diabetes and hypertension -- the demand is especially high for organs from live donors, as well as victims of tragedy.

Blacks represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, but comprise 23 percent of people waiting on kidney donor lists, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Christian was one of those on the waiting list, both at Duke Hospital and at nearby UNC Hospitals. Had it not been for Molin offering one of her organs, says Duke transplant surgeon Dr. Paul C. Kuo, Christian might have waited two to five years for a kidney. All the while, she'd have grown sicker and sicker -- and could have died.

Few knew that Lori Christian was sick. She felt fine until returning from a vacation in Mexico six years ago with weird swelling in her legs. She initially chalked it up to a bug she might have picked up, but tests showed she had focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a progressive kidney disease that affects the body's ability to process toxins.

For a while, Christian did well. She was able to continue playing tennis, plus keep up with her children's busy schedules. But steroids, which help some people who have the disease, did little for her other than cause rapid weight gain. By last October, she was losing energy and would come home from work exhausted.

"I would just come home and go to bed," she says. With her kidneys failing, she began dialysis in December. Her husband, Wayne, learned to operate a home dialysis machine. Artificial filtration kept Christian alive.

She went on the kidney transplant list in February, but told few people about her illness.

"She is a very private person," Molin says, "and she didn't want anyone to know, but she told me she needed a kidney transplant. And I said, 'Lori, why didn't you tell me? I would give you a kidney.' "

Christian was reluctant to ask that of her friend and, in fact, hated even asking her family to be tested for blood and organ compatibility. But of six people who were screened, two were matches, Molin and Christian's sister-in-law. Molin was insistent.

"I knew I was going to do this," Molin says.

Since their first meeting at Sterling Montessori Academy in Morrisville, where Molin taught Christian's son, Justin, the two women had become fast friends. Molin's son, Allan, became close to Justin, so the women carpooled each other's children, got together for dinner, celebrated important milestones. Molin, a single mother, knew how much Christian meant to her family.

"I wanted to do this because Lori has two children, and so do I," says Molin, who has an older son in college. "I do not want them to have to grow up without her. Her children and her husband are her life. I'm constantly telling my children to help their friends out, and I felt like if didn't help Lori, I'd be a hypocrite."

But much depended on how well Molin matched. Donors and recipients don't have to be exact matches for tissue compatibility, because new drugs do a better job of keeping the recipient's body from rejecting the donated organ.

Still, there are risks, and Christian and Molin went through a battery of physical and psychological tests to assure doctors they were healthy enough to come through their respective surgeries. The transplant occurred at Duke Hospital on Oct. 3. Kuo, the transplant surgeon, says Christian is likely to get up to 15 years of health from the new kidney, perhaps more if she takes care of herself.

"This just puts life in perspective," Christian says. "I woke up [afterward] thinking, I really do have a new kidney."

And with it, she says, she has a renewed appreciation for the gifts of love -- and of loved ones.

COREY LOWENSTEIN/THE (RALEIGH, N.C.) NEWS & OBSERVER

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/orl-kidneytrans09feb10,0,2636820.story