Couple Discovers They're Perfect Donor Match

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TheKansasCityChannel.com

Couple Discovers They're Perfect Donor Match

February 12, 2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It is the medical equivalent of a needle in a haystack. An estimated 80,000 people are waiting for a suitable donor for a life-saving organ transplant, KMBC's Bev Chapman reported.

Joanne Porter, 50, and Don Altis, 52, planned to marry when Altis discovered he needed a new kidney.

"I didn't realize how sick I was," Altis told Chapman.

Chapman reported that high blood pressure damaged Altis' kidneys and led to a heart attack. Porter said she watched him struggle with dialysis, and that is when she began considering giving her kidney.

"I said, 'Find him a kidney and you guys can have one of mine. That's the bottom line,'" Porter recalled telling a transplant counselor.

Little did they know that the green donate life bracelets they wore would bind them in a way they never imagined. After blood and tissue testing, it turned out that Porter was a suitable donor for Altis.

"And I was like, 'We're more of a match than we thought,'" Porter said.

Chapman reported that the whole family kept vigil for several hours while the surgeries were performed.

"The success rate is excellent. The kidney starts functioning the day of the surgery. It has over 90 percent success rate several years out," Dr. Keenan Berghoff said.

Berghoff harvested Porter's healthy kidney. Dr. Paul Nelson transplanted it.

"We just walk it across the hall, sew it in and it usually starts up right away," Nelson said.

Altis said he tried to talk Porter out of the surgery.

"This is major surgery. There are no two ways about it. And for her to go ahead and do this, it's just fantastic," Altis said.

Hours into the surgery, the family received good news.

"They got her kidney out, no problem. She did wonderful," said Lenore Sterling, Altis' daughter.

Flowers that Altis sent to Porter arrived in the waiting room and three hours later, the family heard what they had hoped for.

"It's a pretty shade of pink, and it's making urine and that means good," Sterling said.

Altis' brother, David, was especially moved. He was born with just one kidney and wanted to help.

"I never dreamed it would be my brother that was in need and somebody else stepped up to help him," David Altis said.

Three days after the surgery, Chapman went back to talk to Altis, who said he woke up feeling better within hours.

"I don't know how to describe it. It was so good," Altis said.

"I have no doubts it was the best thing I could have done for him and for me. Being the greedy person I am, I just wanted him around for a while longer, and if this is the way you do it, yeah, I'm all for it," Porter said.

"She is the best in the world. She is my love and I'm absolutely crazy about her," Altis said.

Chapman reported that anti-rejection drugs are making stories like Altis' and Porter's much more common. Surgical advances are shortening the recovery time for donors.

There are about 4,000 people in Kansas and Missouri waiting for an organ. Half of those donated will come from living donors, Chapman reported.

URL: http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/health/10991028/detail.html?rss=kc1&psp=news