Kidney donors, recipients form their own circle of life

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Kidney donors, recipients form their own circle of life

March 24, 2010

BY SANDY THORN CLARK

By each donating a kidney to a stranger, three Illinois residents -- medically incompatible to donate an organ to their relative -- were assured that, in return, their family member would receive a compatible kidney -- likewise given by a stranger.

The March 11 exchange took place in operating rooms at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, recognized as one of the top U.S. living donor transplant centers.

Less than one week after the successful transplants, the three recipients -- Seth McConnell, Patrick Reynolds and John Stone -- gathered in a 17th floor conference room at the hospital to thank their donors -- Kathy Reynolds, Robert Stone and Deon McConnell, respectively.

It was a meet-and-greet not unlike a family reunion with new members. There were cordial introductions, hugs, handshakes, smiles, e-mail exchanges, and snapshots of the six holding hands to replicate a circle of life.

"If you crave cookies, candies and sweets, that's from me," quipped Kathy Reynolds, 56, of Hoffman Estates, to Seth McConnell, 21, of Taylorville, who received her kidney.

Her son, Patrick, 23, received his new kidney from Robert Stone, 27, of Prophetstown, whose father, John, 62, received his new kidney from Deon McConnell, 48 (Seth's father).

"As a mother, I would do anything to help my son -- and this [exchange] was the only option. We're ecstatic with the results," said Reynolds, a diabetes education nurse who had watched her son endure nine hours of dialysis daily after a kidney transplant four years ago failed.

"The kidney [from a deceased donor] for that transplant, when Patrick was 19, was delayed on a plane for 23 hours in a snowstorm so it arrived damaged. It came with kidney stones, and it only lasted a year," she explained.

Like the other kidney recipients, John Stone was only too aware that the list of persons needing an organ transplant is ever-growing and the wait is ever-longer (on the day of the meet-and-greet, the United Network for Organ Sharing's national registry listed 106,523 persons awaiting organ transplants).

Stone, on the waiting list for one year and on dialysis for seven months, said he quickly embraced the exchange.

"I told the doctors, 'Any option you offer us will be fine,' " recalled the part-time math teacher.

Deon McConnell had dreaded Seth's transplant since his son contracted a rare E. coli-like virus when he was 6 months old.

"Doctors told us then that Seth would need a transplant when he was 20 or 21. I prepared for it thinking that, more than likely, I would be the donor. That motivated me to quit smoking 19 years ago so I could donate my kidney to him," explained the father who felt "helpless" when that time came and doctors told him he was not a viable match.

The six agreed that the donors, hospitalized only one night, suffered more immediate and lingering pain than the recipients, hospitalized two nights.

Dr. John J. Friedewald, transplant nephrologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said the goal of the national Organ Procurement and Transplant Network/United Network for Organ Sharing Committee for Kidney Paired Donations -- which he chairs -- is to establish a system to offer kidney-paired donations on a national level.

"The reason for this is that the bigger the pool of pairs [incompatible donor/recipients], the more likely you are to find a compatible exchange for that pair. By allowing transplant programs from all over the country to enter incompatible pairs into a computer matching system, we hope to find a great many more compatible matches for patients who have a healthy and willing, but incompatible, live donor," the doctor explained.

"In creating a national system, we hope to increase the number of kidney transplants performed nationally by as many as 1,000 per year. This, in turn, allows patients to come off the long deceased donor waiting list, shortening the waiting time for patients who are on that list," added Friedewald, who expects a pilot national program to be launched this year.

Sandy Thorn Clark is a local freelance writer.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/2118694,FIT-News-Circle24.article