Two Eastern Iowa Sisters Share a Medical Success

[okarol]

Two Eastern Iowa Sisters Share a Medical Success

By Dave Franzman, Reporter
Story Created: Apr 18, 2008

IOWA CITY- It's not medical miracle...but two sisters from two Eastern Iowa communities are sharing a most unusual medical success story.

Both needed a kidney transplant for different reasons. And both received donor organs. The unusual part is both sisters got a kidney each from the same deceased donor.

Karen Parizek, Lone Tree, and Elaine Behrens, Wilton, struggled with kidney problems for about five years. Behrens was already on dialysis and Parizek was getting closer to that decision.

Both were on transplant waiting lists at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. But when the call about a donor organ came last weekend, there was some initial confusion. It seems both sisters, and family members didn't realize the two were getting called at the same time for the same donor organs.

"Then at that point, we started putting things together...I was number two and she was number one," recipient Karen Parizek said.

Her sister, Elaine Behrens, added "Sunday morning when they told us both kidneys were coming to Iowa City...that was real hope."

It was real hope...and also really unusual.

Both sisters got a single kidney each from the same deceased donor and the operations were performed one right after the other. It's never happened at University Hospitals before.

And because a national network handles transplant lists, at first U of I doctors and nurses didn't know the recipients were related.

Dr. Andy Bertolatus, Kidney specialist, said "I thought how could two random people look that much alike, they were almost like identical twins to me. Then I found out they were sisters and I should have thought of that at the start."

Elaine, the older sister, recovered first and was discharged from the hospital Thursday night. Karen's still stuck in recovery for the moment.
But both say there's no hard feelings about that. Karen just gets a little more time to recuperate.

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/17926879.html

[MiSSis]

Both of my transplants were performed at the University of Iowa and I used to see Dr. Bertolatus when I would go up there for my annual visits.  This article brought back a lot of memories for me.  The transplant and nursing staff were wonderful.

[monrein]

What a cool and unusual story.    Karol