Woman recovers with dad's donated kidney

Woman recovers with dad's donated kidney
By Gina Morton
The Daily Item
May 17, 2009 08:12 am

— NORTHUMBERLAND -- The tiny organ, weighing only a third of a pound, has given Autumn Renard a chance at ending dialysis.
Six weeks ago her father donated one of his kidneys to the 24-year-old Northumberland woman. She now has three, and hasn't had dialysis -- which she was undergoing four times a day for 16 months -- for three weeks.
"She's gotten so much better," said Carol Renard, of White Deer, Autumn's mother. "Her color is back and she has more energy."
Although Autumn's new kidney isn't functioning perfectly, it's slowly improving and doctors think it will turn around, Carol said.
"It's actually functioning better then my dad's current one," Autumn said.
Her father, Randy Renard, 55, of Penn Township, Snyder County, said the decision to donate the organ was an easy one.
"It was pretty much a no-brainer what I had to do," he said Thursday. "She was the gift of life to us."
Autumn suffers from olieomeganephrosis, an extremely rare kidney disease that affects only 5 to 10 percent of kidney patients, Carol said.
Autumn, of Northumberland, was born with small kidneys, but the organs still produce large nephrons, the functional unit of the kidney that eliminates toxins.
The average person has 1 million nephrons, Carol said, and Autumn has twice that number.
Because her kidneys were constantly overworking, the genetic disorder caused both of Autumn's kidneys to fail.
The surgery took place March 31 at Hershey Medical Center and, while father and daughter were supposed to have only about a weeklong hospital stay, Autumn found herself still there 28 days later.
"It was horrible," she said. "I never want anyone to go through what I went through."
While the family didn't have an exact total on how much the surgeries cost because insurance paid for both, the Renards guessed it was more than $1 million after the prolonged hospital stay, multiple surgeries and the medications needed.
The insurance carrier of the transplant recipient pays for the surgery of the donor, Carol said.
After the initial surgery, Autumn said the kidney wasn't functioning well and developed a hematoma, or blood clot.
It was extremely painful, Autumn said, and an emergency surgery was performed.
"I couldn't walk or move," she said. "That was the worst experience for me."
Her father didn't have as difficult an experience.
When he woke up, the first thing he saw was his mother staring at him in the recovery room.
"No matter how old you are, you're still a child to your parents," he said. "To see the relief and love on her face was the most beautiful thing a person could witness."
He also interjected humor into the experience with doctors and nurses to make the situation a little easier.
"(After surgery) I told them I wanted to be back in my room in time for American Idol,'" he said with a laugh. "They said to me, You just had major surgery and you want to watch American Idol?'"
Lots of visitors
While Autumn was stuck in the hospital for weeks longer than expected, her fiance, Steven Gulliver, 21, of Northumberland, stayed with her almost every day.
Family and friends, fellow church members and her pastor all stopped by to check on her throughout the stay.
It's apparent Autumn is recovering, as she laughed and joked with both parents in her Northumberland home.
She has lab work three times a week. She takes 21 medications daily and has trouble walking long distances.
She sleeps and relaxes a lot.
But she's coming around, her parents said.
Randy said the surgery was a success, and he highly recommended others to give the gift of life to someone if the opportunity presents itself.
"Not everyone should expect what we experienced," he said. "I don't want to put fear in future donors, I want to encourage donating organs. It's a selfless act I highly recommend."

http://www.dailyitem.com/0100_news/local_story_137080021.html?start:int=15