Couple celebrate Valentine’s Day transplant anniversary

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Couple celebrate Valentine’s Day transplant anniversary

Last update Feb 13, 2009 @ 05:25 PM

CRESTON —

It’s a good thing Kyle and Dawn Terry don’t engage in a game of one-upmanship when it comes to giving each other Valentine’s Day gifts.

If they did, Kyle would be hard-pressed to top his wife’s gift to him: a kidney.

“It’s a pretty selfless thing to do when someone gives you something like that,” said Kyle, who was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of their surgeries performed at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.

Kyle and Dawn agreed to share their story to bring awareness to the need for organ donations.
Polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disorder characterized by the growth of numerous cysts in the kidneys. The fluid-filled cysts enlarge the kidneys, resulting in reduced kidney function and eventually kidney failure. The end result is life on dialysis or, in Kyle’s case, a kidney transplant.

“When I think of what I could be going through,” he said, “this is probably the best Valentine’s Day I could have.”

Kyle, 50, was diagnosed with the disease 25 years ago.

“It comes on slow,” he said. “You don’t really notice how bad you’re getting. You gradually slow down. I had an accident at work. I hit my kidney area on the side. I went to the doctor to get X-rays, and that’s when they discovered I had the disease.”

The diagnosis was made about seven years before Kyle and Dawn met while on the job at the now-defunct Caron Yarn, a yarn-spinning factory in Rochelle.

Dawn said she understood a day would come when Kyle would need a kidney transplant or would go on dialysis until a donor became available.

“We had talked about it, and I always said, ‘When it gets time, you can have one of mine.’ I knew we were the same blood type.

”I never gave it a second thought. From the time I was 16 years old, I’ve been an organ donor on my license.”

Kathy Schultz, a University of Wisconsin Hospital spokeswoman, said every day 18 people die on the “waiting list” and a new name is added to the list every 13 minutes.

“This is a big reason why living donation is so important,” she said. “It not only provides the gift of life to the recipient, but also removes their name from the waiting list, effectively moving everyone else up one notch. That’s why we call living donors ‘double heroes.’ They’re really saving two lives.”
Donors needed

In Wisconsin, 1,514 people are waiting for a transplant, of which 1,101 (73 percent) are waiting for a kidney. 
In Illinois, 4,641 people are waiting for a transplant, of which 3,740 (81 percent) are waiting for a kidney.
In the U.S., 100,678 people are waiting for a transplant, of which 78,380 (78 percent) need a kidney.
Source: The United Network for Organ Sharing database; figures as of Feb. 10.


Kyle was one to two weeks away from going on dialysis when he and Dawn went under the knife.

Dawn said the fact that the potentially life-saving procedure was performed on Valentine’s Day was merely a coincidence. Kyle said the fact that the kidney came from his wife and spared him from one day on dialysis was a blessing.

Dawn is encouraging everyone to give, be it as a living donor or otherwise.

“If you have a chance to be a donor, do it. The way it’s done, your recovery is not that long, and it’s well-worth it,” she said. “It’s gratifying, it’s easy, and the doctors were great.”

Dawn said the four-hour laparoscopic surgery consisted of four incisions and a three-day stay in the hospital.

“I wasn’t doing cartwheels, but they had me up the same day I had the surgery.”

Kyle, a mechanic for Silgan Containers in Rochelle, also has made a full recovery. Instead of daily dialysis, he takes daily medication to keep his body from rejecting the organ.

As for how the couple will celebrate the one-year milestone, Dawn said:

“We’ll have dinner and just have a quiet evening at home.”

Staff writer Chris Green can be reached at cgreen@rrstar.com or 815-987-1241.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1124688339/Couple-celebrate-1-year-anniversary-of-Valentine-s-Day-transplant