HIS SECOND TRANSPLANT

HIS SECOND TRANSPLANT - Son needs kidney, Mom steps in: While it’s not her organ he got, it still saved her boy

By SUE SCHEIBLE
The Patriot Ledger
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Six patients. Six surgeries. One historic triple kidney transplant. A 60-year-old Braintree mother and her 22-year-old son are two of six people who made Massachusetts medical history three weeks ago. On Feb. 27, three of the six people donated healthy kidneys and the other three received them at two Boston hospitals.

Colette Clifford of Braintree, the mother of five young adults, gave up one of her kidneys. Her son, Ryan, 22, born with kidney disease, received one. But Colette’s kidney did not go to Ryan, because their blood and tissue types did not match.

Instead, in an organ exchange, Colette agreed to donate a kidney to another anonymous patient, a 42-year-old man, who was a compatible match. That qualified Ryan to receive a donor kidney from a 40-year-old woman who did match his tissue type.

His donor was anonymous, until now. Last night, Lisa Dubois, 44, of Hopedale, said that she was told her donor kidney went to a young man whose first name was Ryan and that his mother was not a match for her son and had agreed to donate a kidney to a stranger in return.

‘‘I am so excited to meet him - this is like Christmas Eve,’’ Dubois said. ‘‘I kept asking the doctors at Mass. General, ‘How’s mine (recipient) doing?’ I had begged the nurses to just give me a first name, so that I had a name to put into my prayers.’’

Ryan, who was recovering at home yesterday and still didn’t know the name of his donor, is simply grateful.

‘‘I was extremely excited to be able to start to have a more normal life. There are a lot of young people and children who are stuck on dialysis and who have to deal with kidney disease. I want them to know you can prevail over it and have a somewhat normal life.’’

The three donors and three recipients were to meet one another today for the first time in Newton, where Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the New England Organ Bank planned a press event.
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It was the first time in Massachusetts that such a complex three-way kidney transplant had taken place, according to the two hospitals. The six had participated in the New England Program for Kidney Exchange, run by the New England Organ Bank.

First transplant in 1996

For Ryan, this was his second kidney transplant. The 2004 graduate of Braintree High School was born with just one small kidney. It functioned all right until he was 12, and when it failed, his father, Daniel, 59, donated one of his healthy kidneys in 1996.

Ryan said that allowed him to have a normal adolescence, but in October 2005, he suddenly became very ill when the donated kidney no longer functioned. He began dialysis and endured a succession of infections caused by a catheter.

His mother learned about the kidney exchange program, underwent the testing and was approved four months ago. In early February, the Cliffords learned that a computer match had been found for both Ryan to receive a kidney and for Colette to donate one.

‘‘It’s amazing - this is a way to help, to give a kidney, if you’re not a match for your loved one,’’ Colette said yesterday on her first full day back at work as a hairdresser at Joanna’s House of Beauty in Hingham.

As she curled the hair of 90-year-old Rita Cummings of Wellesley, a Sister of Charity of Halifax, Colette Clifford said, ‘‘Sister here has been praying for me. Ryan is a kid with 10 lives. In the last year and four months, it’s been a nightmare with all his infections and he’s been so sick.’’

Colette Clifford had a new minimally invasive surgical procedure to remove her kidney - less traumatic than the more invasive surgery her husband had 10 years ago. ‘‘Medicine has improved so much,’’ Daniel Clifford said. ‘‘She’s recovered a lot faster than I did.’’ Colette had her surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess; Ryan had his at Mass. General.

Daniel Clifford recalled his feelings on Feb. 27 of both concern for his wife and excitement for his son ‘‘having a chance at a new start in life.’’ The couple have three daughters and another son. Colette was the oldest of the six patients; Ryan, the youngest.

Donor just wanted to help

Dr. Nina Tolkoff-Rubin, medical director of the renal transplantation program at Mass General, called the exchange ‘‘extraordinary’’ and said a single altruistic donor, Dubois of Hopedale, began ‘‘the domino effect’’ by stepping forward. Dubois, whose kidney went to Ryan, agreed to donate a healthy kidney because she wanted to help someone, even though she had no particular recipient in mind.

‘‘Two young men desperately needed a kidney and she agreed to start things off,’’ Rubin said. ‘‘Otherwise, the patients could have remained on dialysis waiting for a kidney for years,’’ she said.

Dubois said she was motivated to help partly because she comes from a very healthy family without any kidney disease or diabetes, and she realized how fortunate her family had been.

Ryan Clifford said that he had to have dialysis three days a week for four hours each time.

‘‘You realize all the little things in life that people take for granted - a normal day is when you don’t have to go through treatment to stay alive, when you can eat what you want, when you can take a shower because you don’t have a catheter that might get infected,’’ he said.

Colette Clifford said Ryan’s illness, hyperplastic kidney disease, was diagnosed while he was still in the womb and she was six months pregnant. Ultrasound tests showed he only had one kidney and it was very small.

Ryan said he plans to enroll in college, and wants to become a surgical technician. ‘‘I’m still a young adult and I need to get out and do the things that young adults can do,’’ he said.

A life-saving option

- People who need a kidney transplant can register with the New England Program for Kidney Exchange in Newton when none of their potential organ donors are good biological matches.

- In an exchange, the potential donor, often a family member, will agree to give a kidney to an anonymous person who also needs one.

- The New England Program for Kidney Exchange uses a computer program to find matched pairs.

- The exchange program can also find potential kidney recipients for people known as Good Samaritan or altruistic donors. They agree to donate a healthy kidney without having a specific return donation in mind. For information, go to

nepke.org. or call 617-243-2557.

Sue Scheible may be reached at sscheible@ledger.com
http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2007/03/21/news/news03.txt

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