Divine Inspiration: Giving a Gift of Life

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Divine Inspiration: Giving a Gift of Life
McLean resident donates a kidney, runs in U.S. Transplant Games next summer.
By Sarak Ardestani, The Connection

Donating a kidney to save the life of a complete stranger was an inspired action that Judy Payne, 59, of McLean, took after reading a newspaper article “about somebody else who had donated a kidney to somebody.

“I just started looking around the Web … and once I looked at the testimonials, then I started thinking maybe I could do this,” Payne said.

While doing her research, Payne was particularly moved by a testimonial written by a priest named Patrick, who had donated a kidney six years ago. She started corresponding with him and learned that there were a lot of people waiting for kidneys.

“The statistics are so dramatic. There are thousands of people every year that die on the waiting list for kidneys,” Payne said.

According to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), in the Washington, D.C. area, over 700,000 people have kidney disease; nearly 6,000 patients are on dialysis; and more than 1,600 people are waiting for kidney transplants.

DESPITE THE STARTLING FACTS and her interest in helping out, Payne was a little apprehensive about going through with the surgery.

“I’m very athletic so I was really concerned about having to give up any of that. So I e-mailed him and asked what it was like now that it was six years after,” Payne said, “and he said ‘Well, I’m really healthy. I took up running and I’ve run a marathon since then.’”

His response gave Payne, a 12-time marathon runner and USAID employee, the assurance that donating a kidney would not adversely affect her active lifestyle.

After getting the push she was looking for, in September 2009, Payne moved forward with the kidney donation at Johns Hopkins Hospital, based on a recommendation from her daughter, who was a medical student at the hospital at the time. Payne elected to participate in Johns Hopkins Hospital’s paired kidney exchange program as an altruistic donor. The paired exchange program, founded in 2001, links two or more pairs of willing donors and recipients for a swap when the individual donor-recipient pairs are not compatible.

“For me it was very easy. I was out of the hospital in three days and taking walks within four or five days,” Payne said. The laparoscopic surgery performed on Payne allowed for tiny incisions and according to her was not invasive. “People without laparoscopic surgery have huge incisions, but I didn’t have to have any of that.”

“In the case of Judy Payne that story is frankly remarkable,” said Ed Walter, a national board member of the National Kidney Foundation and resident of McLean, about Payne’s kidney donation. “You don’t see a whole lot of situations where that happens, where somebody doesn’t have a relative or a friend impacted by kidney disease.”

As a kidney recipient, Becky Scheip, 17, of Alexandria, received the transplant when she was 11. She received her kidney from an anonymous donor, who passed away in a car accident.

“If I were to meet the donor’s parents, I would definitely give my gratitude and let them know that I’m doing everything possible to keep my kidney healthy and that it really did open my eyes to more things in life and to experience all you can,” Scheip said.

TO POTENTIAL DONORS, Scheip has a few words of encouragement.

“If they decide to donate … they’re also giving somebody else a second chance at life and that should be the most important thing, just giving life,” Scheip said.

Walter of the National Kidney Foundation said that the option of making a live donation is not always an easy decision.

“It’s understandable that most people are a little reluctant to give up a kidney at this point when they’re alive because they’re not exactly certain what their own health is going to play out like over the rest of their lifetime,” Walter said.

For those reluctant individuals, Walter mentioned that there are other steps they can take.

“One important step for people to do is to sign a donor card and make certain that the rest of their family is aware of their intent to become a donor. That tends to be where most donations come from and that’s a hugely important source of organs in the future.”

A donation made via a donor card proved to be life-changing for Jim Mozingo of Gaithersburg, Md., who received a kidney in 2006. Mozingo was on the kidney waiting list for only six months before he received a perfect match kidney.

“I was extraordinarily lucky,” Mozingo said. “I’m so thankful. It has enhanced and extended my life.”

Along with kidney donor Payne and kidney recipient Scheip, Mozingo plans on competing in the 2010 National Kidney Foundation’s U.S. Transplant Games in Madison, July 30-Aug. 4.

According to Mozingo, the Olympic-style games, designed for athletes who have received life-saving organ transplants, are a celebration of life. The games will include track and field, swimming, tennis, basketball, cycling and golf competitions.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=338706&paper=68&cat=104