City man receives kidney from a friend

[okarol]

City man receives kidney from a friend

BY MARIA HERNE
STAFF WRITER
mherne@republicanherald.com
02/08/2008

The incredible bond between Dan Young and Mark Brown began six years ago when they became co-workers at the State Correctional Institution/Mahanoy in Mahanoy Township.

As prison guards — an often dangerous and unpredictable job — they depended on each other.

“Where we work, you know that the person next to you is going to respond immediately, whenever you need them,” Young said. “That’s part of the job. That’s who we are.”

Several years ago, when Young, 39, was diagnosed with kidney failure that resulted from undetected high blood pressure, he and his doctors began the search for a donor organ. The Pottsville father of two didn’t have to look far.

Brown, 46, a Nanticoke resident, stepped up to help his co-worker and friend in need by offering one of his kidneys to Dan.

“I went to his house for a Fourth of July party,” Brown said. “When I saw how bad he was doing, my mind was pretty much made up. I just decided right then and there that I was going to help him if I could.”

Brown talked it over with his wife, Kelly, and his family.

“We decided it was the right thing to do,” he said.

Young had not found a match from his relatives, so he was placed on the national donor transplant registry in 2006.

“The kidney failure had rapidly increased and although I wasn’t yet on dialysis, the doctor said I would be within six months if I didn’t do something,” Young said.

“We have two small children who were deeply affected by this diagnosis, since their grandmother — my mom — also had a kidney transplant and died from toxic levels of potassium that failing kidneys produce,” Young’s wife, Darlene, said.

Friends and other co-workers volunteered to get tested to confirm if they were compatible donors, but only Brown was found to be a perfect match.

“It was pretty amazing. The doctors said that you usually only find a match like that among families,” Young said. “We joke that we were separated at birth.”

Last year, on Feb. 14, the men drove to Lankenau Hospital near Philadelphia for pre-op testing.

“This was during the Valentine’s Day ice storm and we almost got stuck on I-78,” Brown said.

The following week, the two men underwent the transplant surgery.

“While Mark was being taken into the operating room, Dan was being wheeled into pre-op,” Darlene Young said. “They high-fived each other as they passed in the hall and wished each other well.”

On Feb. 22, Young will celebrate one year of recovery and renewed health.

“It’s hard to find the words to say how grateful I am,” he said. “What do you say to someone who gave you a second chance at life?”

Brown said he hopes that others who are considering becoming living donors for others, but are afraid of what the procedure entails, will find out more.

“People don’t have the information and are afraid it’s very costly or painful, but that wasn’t the case for me,” he said.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a living donation — as opposed to a organ donation from an individual who has been declared brain dead and their families have made the decision to donate their organs — takes place when a living person donates an organ, or part of an organ, for transplantation to another person. The living donor can be a family member or someone who is emotionally related to the recipient, such as a good friend, spouse or an in-law — and in some cases, even a stranger.

A living donor may give a single kidney, a lobe of a lung or liver or a portion of the pancreas for transplant.

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, kidneys are the most frequent organ involved in living organ donation. Forty-seven percent of donated kidneys were from living donors in 2006.

For the donor, the remaining kidney compensates to do the work of both kidneys.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, less invasive surgery for live donors and new anti-rejection drug protocols that have been perfected in the last few years have made the prognosis better for living kidney donor transplant recipients.

http://www.republicanherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19275625&BRD=2626&PAG=461&dept_id=532624&rfi=6

[NVRWKN]

This is news to me. Pottsville is 30 mins from where I live and I never heard about this. These are the things that need to be talked about. Inspiration for other people to make the same decision. Or at least become an organ donor. I am going to work on starting a drive for organ donors here in Pa. Thanks for the article. I would have never known.