Man donates kidney, liver

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PUBLISHED: Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Man donates kidney, liver

It's a Michigan first for Macomb Township man

By Maryanne Kocis MacLeod
Journal Register News Service

When Bruce Coburn's family calls him a lifesaver, they mean it.

The 40-year-old physical therapist and father of two recently became the first living person in Michigan to donate parts of two different organs - in his case, to his wife and sister-in-law.

Coburn returned to work today at Henry Ford Cottage Hospital after undergoing laparoscopic surgery April 8 to remove the left side of his kidney, donated to his wife's sister, Patty Moylan, of Macomb Township.

Coburn, also a Macomb Township resident, came up with the idea of helping his sister-in-law last April, just three months after donating the right side of his liver to his wife, Carolyn.

"It felt like the right thing to do," said Coburn, who is gearing up for a 10-mile run in August. "If the situation were reversed, I would want someone to do that for me."

The kidney transplant was performed at St. John Hospital & Medical Center in Detroit and the liver transplant was performed Jan. 14, 2008, at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

"I always knew he was an amazing person," said his wife, Carolyn. "When he offered me his liver, I didn't know what to say. But when he told me he wanted to help my sister, too, I asked: 'are you crazy?'"

"What do you say to someone like that, there's no words, no amount of money. He was put in this family for a reason," said Moylan, 49.

She is now on a mission to make him a quilt.

"He's lost so much weight the last couple years, he's always cold," Moylan said "The quilt I made them for their wedding is falling apart. I told him: 'I'm going to make you a lifesaver quilt.' But no one makes lifesaver print. I might have to screen it and make my own."

"Somebody who's brave enough to be a donor after giving part of their liver, that's pretty rare," said Dr. Henry Oh, director of transplant surgery at St. John.

Finding out Coburn was a match for his wife, Carolyn, was the first hurdle the couple overcame; in most cases, Oh said, husband and wife are not a proper match.

"So when it came time to testing for my sister-in-law, I was pretty confident," Coburn said. "I had already donated very successfully to her sister. I figured we'd have the same good luck with Patty, too."

Fortunately, the second surgery was significantly less invasive.

While Coburn has a 10-inch scar stretching vertically from his abdomen to just above his navel, the scar for his kidney surgery consists of four small punctures and a 2.5 inch incision.

"We weren't too worried because we knew they were going to try and do it laproscopically," Carolyn Coburn said. "If that didn't work, though, it would have been a little more frightening."

Though he insisted the recovery wasn't "all that bad," Bruce Coburn didn't return to work until eight weeks afterwards.

"I feel great," Bruce Coburn said. "But after surgery, the doc gave me three orders: no driving until after my first follow-up; no golf for a month, and no more organ donations period."

Fortunately, his wife and sister-in-law are also doing well. Carolyn Coburn, 37, was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis in 2005. Within three years her condition had taken such a dire turn, a doctor told her husband "she was one infection away from real trouble."

In the weeks leading up to surgery, Coburn was taking his wife to the hospital every 10 days to remove 3 to 6 liters of fluid from her abdomen; on the day of transplant surgery, 11.5 liters were removed.

"Think about it," Coburn said. "Think about how big a 2-liter of pop is. This was much, much more. She looked like she was about to give birth."

"It was a lot to take in," said Carolyn, who besides giving birth to the couple's three children, Meghan, 10, Erin, 8 and Bruce, 6, had never spent a day in the hospital.

Carolyn's sister, Moylan was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and was on the organ donor waiting list for two years leading up to her surgery. Without her brother-in-law's generous donation, she was headed for dialysis.

"I'm not as tired, my feet are warm, my hands are warm, my legs don't ache, I can get up and down without saying 'my knees are killing me,'" said Moylan, who is on leave from her job as an assistant manager for an ACO Hardware store in Warren. "I feel a lot better."

"It's just really important for people in the community to know about organ donation," Coburn said. "If they see me and how well I'm doing, maybe they'll think twice about becoming a donor themselves."

Moylan is already prepping her children for the possibility of donating their organs; her youngest son, 19, was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease four years ago.

"My oldest, Kathleen, already volunteered to donate," Moylan said proudly. "But the doctor told her: 'keep your organs. Your family may need them.' I know she'll come through if need be."

"Large numbers of patients are waiting for a kidney," said Oh, who transplanted the left portion of Coburn's kidney into Moylan. "Right now 2,400 people are waiting for a kidney. The biggest reason is lack of organs. Hopefully something like this will encourage a living, non-related kidney donation."

For more information, visit www.giftoflife.org or call The Gift of Life Agency of Michigan at (800) 482-4881. For more information about the St. John's transplant program, call (313) 343-4881.