Kidney Transplant Recipient Marks 40 Years

Kidney Transplant Recipient Marks 40 Years
Blanchard Received Donation From Younger Brother

UPDATED: 6:27 pm EST November 17, 2010

CONCORD, N.H. -- Forty years ago, Jim Blanchard was given the gift of life by his brother, and he said he has treasured every second of it.

The retired Concord school teacher said he wasn't feeling well in 1969, suffering from extreme nausea. He said he tried to hide the condition from his wife but eventually went to a doctor.

"He said, 'Maybe I ought to give you a blood test,' so he did, and he called up two days later and said I have three months to live," Blanchard said. "And so he said to my wife, who took the call, 'Better not tell him because this is his last Christmas,' is what he said."

At age 36, Blanchard was diagnosed with glomerulonephritis, a condition that attacked both of his kidneys.

Blanchard's younger brother, Alan, volunteered to donate a kidney. Doctors said Jim Blanchard would be lucky if the transplant lasted for five years, even if the surgery was successful.

"They told him in the beginning if the kidney lasted five years, it was considered successful in those days, because they had nothing to measure it by because there weren't that many done, really," Blanchard said.

Blanchard is still going strong, 40 years after the surgery. He is believed to be one of the longest surviving kidney transplant recipients in the state.

His brother passed away four years ago, but Blanchard said they both lived relatively normal, active lives following the operation.

Jim and Alan Blanchard both helped found the New Hampshire Kidney Foundation in 1971.

Blanchard said he feels blessed in many ways, but he said everything came together for a reason.

He still lives in Concord with his wife and has five grandchildren and one great grandchild.

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