Sisters mark transplant -- 34 years later

Sisters mark transplant -- 34 years later

Wendy Wills
Pensacola News
May, 6, 2007

Faye Spivey made an unusual wish 34 years ago.

She prayed she would be the one to give her kidney to her sister, Lucille Nemeth.

Now, 34 years later, she was able to celebrate the successful kidney transplant. Spivey, 71, and Nemeth, 84, invited more than 30 family and friends to Grannie Cantrell's Whistle Stop Cafe. They spoke of how grateful they were the transplant was such a success.

"We're just blessed and we thank God for it and we want to share it with so many people because it just makes me so so happy," Nemeth said. "This kidney is absolutely good."

Nemeth soon may break the record for living the longest after receiving a donor kidney. The current record is a little more than 35 years.

"We wanted so much for the people to see what can be done if others will help them," she said.

Nemeth had polycentric kidney disease in 1973 and was told she had two weeks to live. Doctors searched for a donor and found that her brother was the best match.

Spivey said she did not hesitate to be a donor but she was only the second-best match. Then her brother got a bladder infection and Spivey became No. 1.

To this day, Nemeth's body has not rejected the kidney.

"I said, 'Oh, I want to be the one to give it (the kidney) to you,' " Spivey said. "We're really, really close. I just love her so much."

Nemeth's former kidney specialist of 11 years, Kristin Vergunst, also attended the celebration.

"It really has been a blessing from God," Vergunst said. "Just the fact that she had the transplant back in 1973 when people just didn't receive transplants. She was one of the pioneers."

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