Holiday joy: Organ donor gives family second chance

Holiday joy: Organ donor gives family second chance
By Holly Wise/Sun-News Bureau Chief
Posted: 12/25/2008 01:00:00 AM MST

For more information on organ donation and how to become an organ donor, click here. http://donatelife.net/

SILVER CITY — Christmas dawned extra bright this morning for one Silver City man who has literally been given a second chance at life via organ donation.

Local business owner Lanny Olson received his new kidney on Aug. 11, after two years and three months of surviving on dialysis, a medical procedure that cleans the blood through a machine. Olson, who is also a Silver City Rotarian, was required to be in dialysis three times a week.

"It kept me alive," he recently told other Rotarians during their weekly meeting. "At times I thought that's what I was going to do for the rest of my
Andrew Reister
life."

Olson was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow that affects the blood, in May 2006 after breaking his back while doing landscaping at his hotel and after experiencing renal failure — a clinical manifestation of the disease.

Olson underwent chemotherapy treatment for five months before having a stem cell transplant in October 2006 at the University Medical Center in Tucson.

The stem cell transplant treated the cancer, but left Olson with deteriorating kidney function.

So every other day for two years and three months, Olson could be found in the dialysis treatment center for three to four hours at a time watching his blood cycle through a machine to be cleansed.

"Some people have lived on dialysis for many years, and some don't last long," Olson recently told the Sun-News. "I saw a lot of people that were there when I started who weren't there when I finished."

In the middle of this summer, Olson said he began fighting with his insurance company to get an evaluation for a kidney transplant. If everything matched, his younger brother was willing to give Olson a kidney.

On Aug. 5 and 6, Olson underwent medical testing in Tucson to determine if his body was capable of handling
Anthony Oddone
a kidney transplant. He was told the transplant would probably happen in the next two months. But with almost 100,000 men, women and children currently needing life-saving organ transplants and a projected five-year wait for a kidney, chances of it happening in two months were slim.

But not in Olson's case.

On Aug. 8, Olson said his wife, Jill, a native of New York, arrived at their Holiday Inn Express office and started crying. Her sister in New York had called her and said a good friend of hers had been murdered the night before.

Andrew Reister, 40, of Hampton Bays, N.Y., was working security at the Southampton Publick House in Southampton Village when he was choked by 25-year-old Anthony Oddone, the Sag Harbor Express reported. He sustained severe brain damage and was kept alive on life support.

The next day, he was declared dead. His body was kept on life support to preserve the organs that were to be donated.

Nearly 2,400 miles away, on the same day, Olson was undergoing dialysis in Silver City. While he was at the clinic, Olson said his brother-in-law, Tom, in New York called.

"Andrew's wife would like you to have one of his kidneys. He's an organ donor," he said. Kevin Small, a mutual friend of Reister and Tom's, had been talking about what a tragedy Reister's death was but had stated he was an organ donor. Small called Reister's wife, Stacey, and told her about Olson.

"She said, "I'd love for that to happen because all his organs are going places I don't know,'" Olson told his fellow Rotarians.

From his seat in the dialysis center, Olson called the transplant team in Tucson, but was told they didn't have the results of the tests or the green light from the insurance company.

Olson called the hospital in New York and informed the nurse that he couldn't have the kidney. She asked what his blood type was and when Olson told her, she said it matched Reister's.

"His wife is so excited about you having the kidney, you've got to try harder," she told Olson.

Olson decided to try calling his family doctor, Jim Skee, in Silver City.

"I don't really know what he told those people in Tucson," Olson said. But in 30 minutes, the transplant coordinator called Olson and said "maybe there's something we can do."

By 11:30 p.m. Saturday, the transplant team told Olson to be in Tucson the next morning and that Reister's kidney would be on its way.

"I couldn't sleep," said Olson. "I couldn't believe what was happening."

He and his wife packed for a six-week stay in Tucson and headed out the next morning.

"It was the happiest I'd ever been to be checked into a hospital," he said.

"I don't know when the organs were harvested," Olson said. "But Sunday morning, the organ went from New York to Tucson."

The kidney arrived at 1 p.m. Aug. 11, Olson's brother-in-law's birthday. Olson underwent his last dialysis treatment, and at 3 p.m. was taken into the operating room.

His surgeons later told him it was the fastest transplant surgery they'd ever done. In two hours, Olson's faulty kidney was replaced with Reister's healthy one.

"Everything was just perfect," said Olson. "The kidney produced urine in the operating room and caused the nurses to cry."

Olson's struggle with high blood pressure before the transplant was resolved with the new kidney.

"Of course, I'm thinking I'm going to make it to old age," he laughed.

Because of Reister's decision to be an organ donor, his body helped more than 100 people.

"I want to point out you're never too old to donate a kidney," Olson told the Rotarians. "I urge you all to become donors."

Olson said his post-transplant life has been healthy so far with no hospital stays.

"I think the whole thing made us stronger and appreciate each other," said Olson, looking at his wife and daughters, Ashley, 19, and Jennifer, 21, who will be celebrating the holidays together. "As horrible as it was, I wouldn't trade it; it taught us a lot about each other."

The family is looking forward to traveling without the hindrances of planning for Olson's dialysis. A special trip to New York is being planned to meet Reister's wife face-to-face.

"I heard her voice this morning for the first time (on my voice mail)," Olson said, digging his keys out of his pocket and displaying a simple silver-plated keychain with the date 8-11-08 engraved on it — a gift from Reister's wife.

The keychain has a small charm of St. Andrew (the protector) that was blessed by their favorite deacon at their church in Hampton Bays. St. Andrew is commonly used by law enforcement personnel to protect them and keep them out of harm's way. Reister's wife, Stacey, wanted Olson to know the saint would always watch over him, said Olson.

Unlike most organ donation recipient situations, Olson has communicated with the wife of his donor from the beginning.

"It's helping her," said Jill. "She can focus on the good, and it's really helped."

The Olson family Christmas plans include "being with our family and hopefully be snowed in," laughed Jill.

Holly Wise can be reached at hwise@scsun-news.com (575) 538-5893

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