Coworkers share 12-year friendship--and a kidney

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Coworkers share 12-year friendship--and a kidney     

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

By KIM BARTO - Bulletin Staff Writer

When Bassett resident Chris Holt found out he needed a kidney, a friend stepped up to save his life.

Jeff Young of Henry donated his right kidney in an April 15 operation, and now both men are on their way to recovery. Holt and Young work together at Skylark Meats, formerly Knauss Foods, and have been friends for 12 years.

“He’s a hero,” Holt said. “If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Young, who went back to work Monday for the first time since the surgery, played down the decision.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” he said.

But for Holt, his wife, Beth, and their two daughters, the organ donation ended a nightmare that began in November. Chris Holt found out he had kidney failure during a trip to the doctor for an unrelated work injury.

“My kidneys were so far gone, there was no hope for them,” he said.

He started dialysis in December, three or four hours a day, three days a week. Holt kept going to work on light duty, working half days when he needed dialysis and coming back the next morning.

“I’d rather be working than sitting at home, worrying myself to death,” he said. “(Dialysis) takes a lot out of you. It was hard, but the company worked with me.

“Sometimes I would feel good. Other days, I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other,” he added.

Even with dialysis, doctors said the outlook was not good.

“We were told, ‘If you don’t get a transplant, you’re going to die,’” Beth Holt said.

But the waiting list for a cadaver kidney is three to six years, according to the National Kidney Foundation, and 20 people die every day waiting for a transplant. In 2007, there were 70,870 Americans on the waiting list.

Six people volunteered to get tested, including Beth Holt, her mother and brother, but they either did not match or could not continue for medical reasons.

“I just got more frustrated, because it seemed hopeless,” Chris Holt said. “I think Jeff (Young) got tired of seeing me come in like that.”

“I told him from day one that I would go get tested,” Young said, and so he underwent the blood work, CAT scan, EKG and other tests to find out if he matched and was healthy enough to donate.

In case Young could not go through with the surgery, other coworkers volunteered to get tested, said Donna Martin, who works in human resources at Skylark.

“People care about him,” Martin said of Chris Holt. “It was hard seeing him like that — he had lost a lot of weight, and his spirits were so down.”

The company took up a collection to help with the medical costs, and a coworker who wished to remain anonymous matched it dollar for dollar. The Holts declined to say how much was collected, but it was a “nice-sized amount,” Chris Holt said, adding, “We’re all close in the shop.”

As it turned out, Young was a match.

“Everybody thought I was crazy,” Young said.

The surgery was his first time in the hospital, and he went home after three days. Holt was released after five.

“I was really surprised at how easy it was,” Chris Holt said. “It was virtually pain-free, though it was hard getting up the first day.”

“It was easy for him, but not for me,” corrected Beth Holt. “You can read the medical literature and be informed before it happens, but when they rolled him out with all the tubes coming out of his neck and an oxygen mask, it was indescribable. I cried the whole first day.”

The Holts celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary in the hospital.

“She kept me going,” Chris Holt said of his wife, who took care of him during his recuperation at home.

Chris Holt plans to go back to work at the end of June. There still is a chance his body could reject the kidney at any time, so he will be on immuno-suppressant drugs for the rest of his life.

Holt’s family wants to spread the word about the living organ donation that saved him.

Living organ donations have tripled since 1990, according to the National Kidney Foundation. When one kidney is removed, the other will increase in size to compensate for the loss.

The donor’s medical costs usually are paid by the recipient’s Medicare or private health insurance, according to the foundation.

“We want people to know — you don’t have to be dead to be an organ donor,” Beth Holt said. “You can donate one kidney and half of the liver. All you have to do is talk to your doctor.”

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?ID=13928