Queensbury woman finds renewal in donated kidney

The gift of life
Queensbury woman finds renewal in donated kidney

By Melissa Guay
mguay@poststar.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:28 AM EST

Though Donna Davison-Smith is 55, according to her new birthday she's just a little more than a month old. She started counting the days all over again since receiving a kidney she has named Rayette, a tribute to Ray Agnew, the living donor and her co-worker and friend.

The surgery took place Jan. 14.

"Ray literally gave me the gift of life, and I consider it a new birthday," Davison-Smith said during a conference call with Agnew last week.

"She's too much," Agnew replied. "I keep telling her I didn't lose a kidney -- I can visit it any time I want."

Then comes the laughter, a sound so common throughout the conversation it makes the exchange of an organ between co-workers seem natural.

The two work at Glens Falls Hospital. Davison-Smith is a hospital patient representative from Queensbury. Agnew, 50, is the hospital's spokesman and its vice president of philanthropy. He lives in Glens Falls.

"I heard from my significant other, who works with Donna, that she needed a kidney transplant. The first thing I thought is, I should see if I can help," Agnew said. "I've known her as a friend and colleague for 10 years. She's one of the first people I remember meeting when I started at the hospital."

Davison-Smith jumped in: "And I said to him, 'Ray, you really need to think about this.'

"I would never dream of asking this of him," she said.

"She's an exceptional person," Agnew said. "To do her job, you have to be. She works with patients and their families, so she has to be compassionate but firm. It takes a special type.

"I did think about it and research risks. Donna wouldn't have it any other way."

The risks

"Well, of course there are risks. The first one that comes to mind is death," Davison-Smith said.

"She's overstating," Agnew said. "The surgery has come a long way; it's much less invasive now. There's no reduction to my life expectancy. My other kidney will grow larger to compensate for not having the other one.

"Really, the biggest change is I have to drink a lot of water and eat less salt, things I should do anyway."

According to the National Kidney Foundation, the risk of death associated with the operation is about 1 in 3,000. The risk of serious complications, such as blood poisoning from bacterial infection, heart attack and blood clots is almost 2 in 100, and of minor complications, such as wound infection, 5 in 100.

Albany Medical Center's Pre-transplant Coordinator Desiree Laz worked with Agnew and Davison-Smith before their surgeries at Albany Medical Center and talked with them about the risks of donation.

"It's not like any other surgery. There's no physical benefit for the one donating the organ," she said. "They'll never have as good (kidney) function with one as they had with two."

Laz said Albany's success rate is higher than the national average, which she attributes to the center's selectivity and thorough testing.

"Nearly 60 percent of potential live donors are rejected," she said.

More transplant kidneys come from dead donors than live ones, Laz said. But each dead donor can give two, so "there are still a greater number of live donors," she said. "It's one of the reasons I love my job. You get to see people being selfless all the time."

"I'm not going to lie; it hurt like heck," Agnew said. "But my friend and colleague needed it, and the risk was quite small. I can't help but think that if more people knew that there's an option out there to help save lives and function almost exactly as before in just a few weeks, there would be more of this type of thing."

The benefits

Davison-Smith is no stranger to surgery. She had a Whipple procedure in 2003 -- an operation that re

moved a third of her stomach, a third of her pancreas and a portion of her intestines -- to treat what doctors thought was pancreatic cancer, but was really an aneurism.

"The good news is, because of the procedure, I was being monitored really closely," she said. "The doctors kept noticing my creatinine level rising, and when that level rises, it means kidney function is decreasing."

Davison-Smith was put on the transplant list April 4 and underwent surgery to install an arteriovenous fistula, connecting an artery to a vein in the forearm to allow for dialysis treatment.

Dialysis replaces some of the kidneys' functions of waste and fluid removal via the fistula.

Davison-Smith said she was fortunate to find a match with Agnew before getting to the stage that required dialysis.

"If they can transplant you before dialysis, it's better. And with me, dialysis was just a matter of time," she said. "The Albany team was so great. They moved things right along. I can't say enough about them."

Laz said one of the benefits of live donation is that the donor's organ is functioning when it's removed, so it is more likely to function immediately after surgery.

"Ray has actually helped two people," Davison-Smith said. "He helped me with a kidney, but he also bumped someone else up on the transplant list. Someone else will get the organ they need that much sooner."

A new life

"I can't wait to kiss my grandchildren," Davison-Smith said, four weeks after the surgery.

She has to wait about three months for her immune system to recover before she can have close contact with anyone.

And though kisses are just around the corner, Laz said Davison-Smith's immune system will always be compromised to some degree.

"The person receiving the kidney has to be on immunosuppressants for the rest of their life," Laz said. "Otherwise, the body treats the kidney like a foreign substance and tries to kill it."

Agnew's life will return to what he calls "a relative normal."

"The good news for me is that after all the tests they put me through, there's no doubt I'm healthy as a horse," Agnew said, laughing. "There's actually very few restrictions on my end. I'll be here to be a father for my two kids. ... Not a whole lot is changing, and I got to help save someone's life. It seems like a win-win to me.

"I didn't lose a kidney," Agnew added. "I gained a new family member."

"You certainly did," Davison-Smith responded.

http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/02/19/news/local/13353074.txt