Midland man finds needed kidney from unlikely source -- his sister-in-law

Midland man finds needed kidney from unlikely source -- his sister-in-law

By Jimmy Patterson
Online Editor
Published: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 2:10 PM CDT

Many people believe there is a plan in store for everyone; a divine fate handed to us all by our maker. Those who believe that also believe we are not here by accident and the things we do and what happens to us all occur for a reason. Regardless what you believe, it's hard to think that the story of Ernie Navarro and Cande Hurn was simply an accident.

To appreciate the full scope of their story, it's necessary to go back 18 years, when Navarro met Ludi Nunez, the woman who would become his wife. About two years into their marriage, Navarro developed diabetes, a condition that ran on his mother's side of the family. At its onset, Navarro could control the disease with medication, but through the years, as it does, the diabetes progressed. He openly admits he enjoyed too many sodas and sweets, items that slowly broke down his system. He knew he should have taken better care of himself in the beginning, but he didn't.

"I don't know if I could have prevented my deteriorating condition or not," he said recently.

Navarro's health worsened to the point that last fall he found himself throwing up on a daily basis as his kidney grew more harmful to his body.

"I was slowly becoming more and more toxic," Navarro said. "My kidneys were not flushing the poisons out of my body and the calcium and potassium were storing up in my blood and that's not good for the heart."

All the while, as Ernie became sicker, the relationship between him and his sister-in-law Cande stayed where it had always been: the two were never particularly close, and both even admit now that at times, it was strained, like many in-law relationships can be. No family is without its challenges.

Help From an Unlikely Source

It would become apparent within the last year that Navarro would need a kidney transplant if he hoped to live. Insurance snags tied up the procedure for six months, frustrating Navarro and his family for what seemed like interminable length of time -- and that was after an acceptable donor had been located. Last fall, he was sick every day.

"Whenever and whatever I ate I would throw up," Navarro said. "I couldn't eat anything. My appetite was strong but I couldn't eat but a fourth of what I used to."

The fascinating part of Navarro's story is this. Often, kidney donors are found in likely places: within a family, given by a willing relative.

But not always.

When Cande Hurn received the call from her sister Ludi several months ago, the concern was obvious in the sound of Ludi's voice.

"The first time I heard about Ernie needing a transplant, I could hear she was down, and she is usually very upbeat and smiling," Hurn said. "But her voice told me something was wrong, and we knew Ernie had been ill and steadily he had been declining. I asked her about Ernie, because she kept a lot of things to herself but finally she decided to share. Ludi was very upset and told me Ernie needed either dialysis or to be put on the transplant list. My first reaction was shock. I hadn't realized he was that bad."

When Hurn hung up the phone from talking to her sister, she knew immediately she wanted to try to help. Despite the fact they had never been particularly close, learning whether she would be an acceptable donor was something she knew she had to determine.

After talking about it with husband, Kevin, she was tested -- but she decided to keep the results to herself until she had a chance to share the news with them on an upcoming weekend trip to Midland.

She Shoots, She Scores!

Cande's son was scheduled to play in a soccer tournament in Midland and she asked Ludi and Ernie if they would come, she had something she wanted to talk to them about.

"We were running late and we got there thinking the game was going to be over but it was still going on. Cande actually came out to meet us. She saw us from the bleachers and she came up to us and said she was glad we had come. I thought she was going to say it was regretful how we hadn't seen each other often, but when she told me she got tested, and that she had researched it and knew what she was getting into, and that she was match, it hit me all of a sudden. I get teary-eyed even now. It was one of those things that just comes down from heaven."

"Immediately we looked at each other, wanting not to cry," Hurn remembered. "I asked her to please talk to Ernie, because he may not even want to do this, but he just burst out, and I did too, and we were hugging and crying on the soccer field."

Before the news came to Ernie and Ludi, Hurn had only told her husband, who had expressed some early concerns about the procedure but who warmed up to the idea over time.

"Ernie called me that evening when I got back home (to Levelland) and of course he was very appreciative and humbled, and he couldn't believe with our relationship we would be able to do this. This had to be the path God chose for us. Why didn't anyone else in our family match?"

Navarro says more than anything he wants people to know that there are thousands of people on transplant waiting lists. Getting tested to determine if you could be of help to someone is not difficult or painful and it could literally provide life to someone.

"Cande is a walking angel to me," he said. "She saved my life. She's a ray of sunshine and hope that brightened our lives."

Red River Valley

Hurn calls the donor experience, from the realization she wanted to help after years of a strained relationship with Navarro, through testing and eventually the actual surgical removal of her kidney, rewarding.

"Most people tell me it was selfless, but I just had other things on my mind. God knew it would help heal the relationship between Ernie and me. And he knew it would bring back the relationship I'd had with Ludi (and her daughter Amelia). I was hoping it would bring our families closer together. And it's even led to a closer relationship with my husband. Me and my kids and my husband, we have a better appreciation for each other and a closer relationship to God. It's made me have a better understanding of his plans for us. He's the one that puts things in motion."

When Navarro woke from the anesthesia following the transplant surgery, he remembers he had a song stuck in his head, one that he couldn't shake. He told a few people, nurses and his family, that he kept having an uncontrollable urge to hum the song. The song was "Red River Valley," which had been playing over the sound system in the operating room at one point during the surgery. It's interesting to note that Hurn, who was in the same operating room as it played, had square danced to the song freqently when she and her husband had taken lessons several years ago. But what is even more interesting is the last line of "Red River Valley": "For I can't live without you I know."

http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2009/07/15/news/top_stories/doc4a5e124a76444025016343.txt