Gilbert man gave kidney to '30 Rock' star, will join in benefit walk

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Gilbert man gave kidney to '30 Rock' star, will join in benefit walk

11 comments by Allie Seligman - Mar. 12, 2011 07:25 AM
The Arizona Republic

Ryan Perkins has been registered as an organ donor since he got his driver's permit, but it took years for the Gilbert man to realize he could change a life while he was still alive.

"Somehow living organ donation popped into my head, and I just started researching it online," he said.

That was last January, and by June, Perkins was ready to donate a kidney. The 23-year-old gave the organ to someone whose name kept popping during his research - NBC's "30 Rock" actor and National Kidney Foundation spokesman Grizz Chapman.


On April 2, Perkins and Chapman will join about 1,000 dialysis patients, organ-transplant recipients, donor families and living donors at the National Kidney Foundation of Arizona's Kidney Walk. Proceeds from the 5K walk, at Chase Ballpark, will go to the foundation's programs and services.

For Perkins, the decision to donate a kidney was easy after he researched potential complications, the changes he would face and the impact the donation would have.

"The thing that is really neat and interesting is that if your kidneys are going to go into renal failure, both of them do at the same time," he said. "Having one missing really isn't affecting my healthiness."

Perkins said complications are uncommon during kidney transplants, which are now done laparoscopically with just a few small incisions.

Perkins had never watched "30 Rock" and had no idea who Chapman was before he started looking into kidney disease. The name kept coming up during his research, though, and he was impressed with Chapman's message.

"It seemed amazing to me that he was willing to put his personal life out there to keep other people from going into kidney failure," Perkins said.

After years of battling weight problems and hypertension, Chapman's kidneys started to give out about two years ago.

His doctor said losing weight would help, but by then it was too late and Chapman had to go on dialysis. Several days a week he was hooked up to a machine for 4½ hours.

"Once you're on dialysis everything is . . . based around that," he said.

That made it hard to go events, take a vacation with his wife and children or go to work.

"It was tough, but '30 Rock' made it definitely convenient for me," he said.

Chapman, 37, didn't know he had a donor until Perkins had already gone through the initial testing.

"Ultimately he went out and he did all the necessary things," Chapman said. "We didn't find out until almost when it was time."

When he found out a stranger was willing to donate a kidney, Chapman said, he wasn't sure it would work out. Other people had come forward to donate, but Perkins was the first one to follow through with the process.

"Initially I was nervous, but I was just more or less waiting that hopefully it would work out 'cause you just don't know," he said.

Both men said the impact of the surgery didn't hit them until they met.

"When I met him and I met his wife, it was instantly like we knew each other and everything was fine," Perkins said.

Perkins said there were a few tears and many thanks from the Chapmans.

"It made it so real, what was happening," Perkins said.

He said his friends and family were nervous when he first shared the news of his decision.

"At the beginning for everybody it was like, 'We can't believe you're doing this. You're crazy.' That was pretty much the stock response," Perkins said. "As I shared my research with them and what I was finding . . . people became more supportive of the surgery."

Chapman said getting the gift of a new kidney from a stranger is "still surreal."

Now Chapman has more time to spend on things he enjoys, like being with his family.

"I got my life totally back," Chapman said. "It changed it completely."



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2011/03/11/20110311gilbert-man-gives-kidney-30-rock-star-grizz-chapman.html#ixzz1GS8AtHQx