Nurse gives patient her kidney

Nurse gives patient her kidney
'Easy decision' for Mayo staffer

Kellie Hwang
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 31, 2007 12:00 AM

When Marianne Rosati learned that Lee Cranmer, 77, needed a kidney transplant, she sympathized with his
situation.
As a nurse practitioner at Mayo Hospital Clinic, Rosati has seen how difficult it is for patients like him.
After hearing that both of his sons were not matches, though, she did not stop at merely sympathizing.
On March 1, Rosati, 42, donated her left kidney to Cranmer. Her reasons are personal. Rosati saw her
mother pass away from cancer and felt that even though she could not do anything about that situation,
she could help this one.
"I will have been working in transplant for 20 years this May, so I've been on that side of it and see what
patients go through," she said. "It is something I believe in, so it was an easy decision."
Both Rosati and Cramner are healing normally, and Cranmer is expected to be discharged from the clinic
in less than three weeks. Rosati said she hopes to be back to work soon.
"Everything is on schedule and his color is coming back," said Cranmer's wife, Betty. "He is getting
stronger every day, and his appetite is coming back quite a bit. . . . We are really so grateful for Marianne."
Lee Cramner developed the disease three years ago. His primary-care doctor in Los Angeles noticed that
his creatinine level was increasing, a red flag for the disease.
Since Lee's son Ian is a specialist in the transplant clinic at Mayo, Lee wanted the doctors there to handle
his case.
They began monitoring him, and after more than a year, Lee was struck with another blow. He developed
prostate cancer.
Lee was immediately taken off the donor list and underwent three months of radiation.
After he was put back on the list, the search began for a kidney donor.
Ian, a specialist at the hospital, suffers from the disease as well, so he did not qualify. Ian's brother Lee Jr.,
a doctor at the Arizona Cancer Center, tested to become a donor and even had his transplant date
scheduled until doctors learned that his blood type was incompatible.
"At this point we were out of options because the two of us were ineligible and my mom was right off the
bat because she had cancer," Ian said. "This was either going to happen or we were looking at dialysis."
Lee needed the transplant as soon as possible to avoid kidney dialysis.
Before Rosati was verified as a donor, Lee was about two weeks out from needing the procedure.
While resting in his hospital bed a day after the surgery, Lee looked up at Rosati with tenderness.
"It was a miracle after the ups and downs that so many people were willing to step forward," he said.
"When she (Rosati) suddenly appeared, she was an angel."

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