The ultimate gift of love; woman to donate kidney to fiance

[KarenInWA]

The ultimate gift of love; woman to donate kidney to fiance
Submitted by Lindsay Cohen on Sunday, August 15th, 11:45am


They were a match in the game of love, but now a Federal Way couple, engaged to be married, have figured out they're a match of a different kind.
But this one will save his life.
At their apartment in Federal Way, Ashley Goodall and Michael Thomas have been together for five years. They share two dogs and a love of Seahawks football. Pretty soon, they'll also share something no one could have imagined.
“I love him, so I want to save his life,” Goodall says.
Goodall and Thomas are high school sweethearts, who have battled ups and downs like any relationship. But when Thomas started losing weight two years ago, the warning signs were too big to ignore.
At the age of 22, Doctors told Thomas that his kidney was failing.
“I was laying in bed and I was like, ‘Huh, kidney failure. Good thing it’s nothing worse to that,’” Thomas says. “I called my mom, called everybody, and they were like, it’s okay, you’re going to get through this.”
Getting through this wouldn’t be easy. Thomas spent more than a year on a waiting list for a new kidney. His mother, it turned out, couldn’t donate. So Goodall, on a whim, got tested.
“I was a match,” she says, “so, here we are now.”
“I was just elated with joy,” Thomas says. “Even my coworker, I told him. He was the driver. He started crying for me.”
So on Wednesday, the woman who stole Michael Thomas’ heart will also give him one of her kidneys. It’ll happen two months shy of the day they say, “I do.”
“I think it’ll be amazing,” Goodall says. “It’ll make me feel good to know that I helped somebody and I saved their life and they’re still here because I did something good.”
“There’s nothing I could do to pay her back for her kidney,” Thomas says.
On top of the stress of the procedure and the upcoming wedding, Goodall and Thomas found out that neither of their insurance plans covers her donation of the kidney. So they are trying to figure out how to come up with nearly $100,000 for her part of the operation.

http://federalway.komonews.com/content/ultimate-gift-love-woman-donate-kidney-fiance

[RichardMEL]

It's criminal that the government would not financially support such an operation if neither of them do not have the insurance to cover it. Absolutely insane in my view.

[KarenInWA]

It's criminal that the government would not financially support such an operation if neither of them do not have the insurance to cover it. Absolutely insane in my view.

Totally,100% agree with you on that, Richard.  America may be the land of the free, but sometimes that means you are free to die.  Sad, sad, sad.

KarenInWA

[cariad]

What on earth??!! There's something really wrong here.

He should be receiving Medicare - it is automatic for almost every renal patient at transplant. I guess he is not on dialysis yet, so he has not filed for Medicare because he can still work, but I just want to tell this couple to slow down and save $100,000. With Medicare, even a $100,000 procedure becomes a $20,000 one (and it isn't $100k, at least not according to our EOBs) Plus, doesn't insurance reform begin for those with pre-existing conditions in 2 weeks? I have never heard of an insurance plan refusing to cover the donor - I did not think they had any choice on that. I was pre-approved for transplant, my husband never was. I believe my hospital covers the donor part of the operation, so if nothing else, phone Northwestern!!! At my Northwestern eval, the doctor stated "If a donor ever receives a bill, that is a mistake." Gwyn received a bill, and what do you know, it was a mistake!

I really think they can sort this out by asking the financial counselor at the hospital for assistance in navigating the system. Of course the government wants him to get a transplant, because if he doesn't, he'll be on dialysis that much sooner and most likely cost the system loads more than $100,000. If nothing else, threaten to go to another centre - that will get their hospital motivated to sort something out. I hate to see this couple make such an expensive mistake simply because they do not have the experience to draw upon.