Augusta woman donates kidney to stranger

Augusta woman donates kidney to stranger
12:53 AM, Jun. 24, 2011

When Judith Pasquarella of Augusta decided she was going to volunteer to have doctors cut her open, remove a kidney and give it to a stranger, she was worried people would think she's nuts.

When she explains her reasons, though, it becomes obvious why she would sign up with the New York-based National Kidney Registry, an organization that sets up chains of kidney donors.

"You know this Democrat-Republican crap," she said at her Augusta home June 14. "You know what I hate? They forget about the humanity."

Pasquarella also said she doesn't believe equality means letting people starve or be homeless. She is fond of quoting Gandhi, and said her spirituality led her to be a kidney donor.

In May, Pasquarella was honored with the Registry's American Hero's Award with 10 other such donors from around the country.

She credits the medical talk show "The Dr. Oz Show" with introducing her to the Registry. She was watching that program in 2010 when she saw kidney recipients and the Registry featured.

"I went on the Internet, looked it up," the 64-year-old said. "My first thing was, I was too old."

Through the Registry, she discovered that her age would not be a factor, but that she would have to undergo a battery of tests, both physical and psychological, before she could become a donor and kick off a chain of kidney donations.

Dr. George Adam, a Battle Creek-based nephrologist, said donors who are perfectly healthy, free of diabetes and hypertension -- chief causes of kidney failure and the need for new organs -- and heart and lung problems will have little difficulty living life with one kidney.

"Nobody knows what is going to happen to the other kidney, but most of the time, that should not affect the longevity of the donor," Adam said.

The doctor also said of the average 10,000 kidney donations per year, only about 2,000 come from live donors. He also said the list of people waiting for new kidney is about 60,000 people long.

"That's when I was thinking, 'Okay, Lord, either you want someone to have my kidney or you're going to prepare me for death,'" she said. Not that she feared dying, though. She said she was alive at that time for a purpose, and that was to give up a kidney and save another person.

That's just what Pasquarella did on Aug. 25. She flew to a transplant center in
Stanford, Calif., for the surgery. Right up until it was time to go under the knife, she
said, doctors were asking her why she wanted to do it and reassuring her that she
could back out at any time.

She didn't back out and now someone she still has never met -- by her choice -- has
one of her kidneys.

"Every time I think about this being a walking, talking, living person, it's great
because I feel like it's a brother/sister human being," she said. "The only reason I
did this is because it was a chain, you know?"

The National Kidney Registry, according to Chief Communications Officer Ira Brody,
operates mostly by getting paired donors onto a list. A new kidney donor, such as
Pasquarella, is then introduced into the chain.

When Pasquarella's kidney was donated, the person who was going to donate to her
recipient then donated it to someone else, and so on.

"We have gone 32 deep," Brody said of the Registry's record. "Because it's an altruistic
donor who doesn't care who gets their kidney, the chain on the end is open.
There's always a kidney left over."

He described the United States' system of kidney donation as inadequate. Transplant
centers that register with the organization have one week to find a donor; if that
doesn't happen, the center must register the recipient into a national database.

"What may happen, if they don't have a chain process at their transplant center,"
Brody said, "the altruistic donor will give to one person and that will be it, whereas an
altruistic donor can set off a chain that can go indefinitely."

Kidney transplant basics

A kidney transplant is an operation that places a healthy kidney in your body. The transplanted kidney takes over the work of the two kidneys that failed, and you no longer need dialysis.

During a transplant, the surgeon places the new kidney in your lower abdomen and connects the artery and vein of the new kidney to your artery and vein. Often, the new kidney will start making urine as soon as your blood starts flowing through it. But sometimes it takes a few weeks to start working.

Many transplanted kidneys come from donors who have died. Some come from a living family member. The wait for a new kidney can be long. People who have transplants must take drugs to keep their body from rejecting the new kidney for the rest of their lives.

Source: U.S. National Institutes of Health

To become a donor

For information about becoming a kidney donor go to the National Kidney Registry or call 800-936-1627.

Andy Fitzpatrick can be reached at 966-0697 or afitzpatrick@battlecreekenquirer.com.

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