The ultimate holiday gift

The ultimate holiday gift

Staff Reports
Sunday, 03 January 2010 06:39

Earlier this month in Washington, D.C., 13 people with serious kidney disease received life-saving kidney transplants over a six-day period.

Donors and recipients were three police officers, a bank president, a former official with the National Kidney Foundation, three altruistic donors, one of whom is a grandmother, and one who donated because she felt inspired by President Obama’s inauguration speech.

Many of the recipients came to the exchange with a friend or family member willing to donate, but who were incompatible due to mismatched blood types or because the recipient in need had high levels of antibodies to their donors.

“Those people literally needed a needle in a haystack,” said Dr. Keith Melancon, director of the Kidney Pancreas Transplant program at Georgetown University Hospital. “Minorities in particular, would find it extremely difficult to find a suitable donor using traditional donor match methods. By putting them in an exchange and giving them the option of a relatively new use of a blood cleansing technique called plasmapheresis, we can greatly increase their chances of getting a suitable donor as well as reduce their waiting time to get a transplant. Why wait in the long line for a deceased donor to come along if you can bring a donor and wait in the short line?”

Ten of the 13 recipients are African American, Hispanic or Asian American, among the hardest racial groups to match with donors.

“These recipients are patients who have been languishing on the waiting lists, some for several years, because of the large number of incompatibilities that makes finding compatible donors for them very difficult,” said Dr. Jimmy Light, director of Transplantation Services at Washington Hospital Center. “The sophisticated testing by the HLA lab is key to finding both compatible donors and donors with lesser incompatibilities that can be managed by plasmapheresis and immunosuppression to engineer these modern miracles.”

Aside from the well-being and quality of life restored to the recipients in the exchange, public and private health insurers stand to save millions of dollars in medical costs. “The cost of dialysis can range from $70,000 to $80,000 a year,” said Melancon. “A kidney transplant can range anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000, including the first year of follow-up care. Even if you count the annual cost of anti-rejection medications, the break-even point for a transplant comes between two and three years.”

The exchange was kicked off on Dec. 2 with an anonymous altruistic donor from Maryland who said she came forward after being inspired by what she called President Obama’s “call to service” in his inauguration speech. The surgeries continued December 4, 7, 8, 9, and 11.

On the fourth day, Pamela Hull of Fort Wayne on behalf of her cousin Christopher Conte donated to Meta Hudgens of Washington, D.C.

“Each of these transplant exchanges would not occur without ‘Altruistic Donors’ who are the true heroes in the entire effort,” said Light. All of these donors have shown incredible selflessness. They’re so motivated to help their loved ones, and have so much faith and trust in us, they will give their kidney to someone they have never met.”

The above information was submitted by Georgetown University Hospital.

Area residents tell why they gave the greatest gift of all

By Diana J. LeBrun and Grace Housholder

dianajlebrun@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and graceh@kpcnews.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

They don’t stand out in a crowd. But they are remarkable among the living. To save the life of a spouse, a parent or someone they didn’t even know, they gave up a functioning part of their body, one of their two kidneys.

What causes someone to be a living organ donor? We have asked some of these remarkable people. Here are their reasons, in their own words.

Diana LeBrun of Pleasant Lake

Diana donated a kidney in January 2003 to a man in Portland, Ind.

“I had a friend that died waiting for a kidney and my husband was blessed by receiving a kidney from a living donor. I paid that forward by donating a kidney to a stranger but he is not a stranger now as he is my friend.

“I have seen first hand how devastating it is to be on dialysis and sit by waiting for someone to save your life. Many die waiting. How can I sit by knowing that I could help someone and not step up to the plate?

“Donating a kidney has blessed me beyond belief, with new friends and the feeling that I did all I could to help someone. If I had 10 kidneys, I would donate nine. Living donation may not be for everyone but please go to donatelife.net and consider becoming an organ donor.

“My other interests are working for the well being of animals and animal rights, volunteering with the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization, dogs and water skiing.”

Janny O’Connell of Angola

“On Dec. 26, 2001 I donated one of my kidneys to a gentleman named Don LeBrun. People have asked me why I would do that, and I have told them how could I not. I somehow knew deep within myself that we would be a match and that I could save his life. It would have been an awful thing if I had just stood by and let him die. He was not a close friend, just a general acquaintance.

“About myself, I am a builder. I consider myself to be a free spirit and I have an extreme addiction to flower gardening, my cats, Cape Cod and my family. If you have the opportunity, donate, you will never regret it.”

Christian Hoeffel of Chicago

Christian donated to his father, Chris Hoeffel of Garrett.

“For me, being a living donor wasn’t a hard choice to make. I had the opportunity to save the life of another human being, in my case my dad. Who wouldn’t jump at that chance? Donating a kidney required little sacrifice on the part of a living donor. And by giving a few weeks of my time and a kidney I could live happily without, it literally meant giving another human being the chance to live a long, healthy life.

“Seeing my dad living without pain and prospect of a deteriorating life is a huge gift to me and our family, and that alone was worth the very little sacrifice I made as a donor.”

Chris Messer of Big Turkey Lake in LaGrange County.

In the picture Peggy Messer is on the left and Chris Messer is on the right.

“I donated my kidney two years ago to my mother-in-law who has Alport Syndrome. She had known for many years that one day she would need a transplant, that renal failure would happen. She followed a kidney-friendly diet and never took medications that are filtered by the kidneys (such as Motrin) to slow the kidney disease as much as possible. When she reached end stage kidney failure she became so sick quickly. She was very fatigued all the time which made daily activities hard. First came peritoneal dialysis and many complications that forced her to hemodialysis.

“This was hard for all of us to see her quality of life decline. She was placed on the transplant list but so many people die waiting on that list. I knew that I would donate if I was a match and I was! Now she is back to work and enjoying life again. With the laproscopic procedure I was back to work in less than three weeks. Living donation is a wonderful opportunity to save the life of someone you love or don’t even know.”

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