EVAC Ambulance employee receives Medal of Merit for kidney donation

EVAC Ambulance employee receives Medal of Merit for kidney donation

Gary Taylor | Sentinel Staff Writer
1:07 PM EDT, July 11, 2008

HOLLY HILL - Adam Clatterbuck has faced so much adversity in life, he might be expected to be a bitter man.

But it's just the opposite, say his supervisors and fellow workers at EVAC Ambulance in Volusia County, where Clatterbuck was awarded today with the agency's Medal of Merit. He is the first employee to receive the award in the more than 25 years the ambulance service has been in existence, said its EVAC Executive Director Mike Mellon.

Clatterbuck, 37, of Port Orange, was given the award for the unselfishness he showed in donating one of his kidneys to save the life of his 39-year-old brother-in-law, Rob Underwood, of Ormond Beach.

The Clatterbucks moved to Volusia County in 2004 after medical bills from two adopted special-needs children pushed them into bankruptcy. They lost everything, including their home, because they received no help from the state, they said.

Today, their 13-year-old daughter is in a nursing home and twice they have been told she has only a short time to live. Both times she beat the odds. Clatterbuck also has a son by a previous marriage.

Underwood, also a father of three, was diagnosed with a hereditary renal disease about six years ago and was on dialysis for about 3 1/2 years before receiving the kidney transplant. "I call it my 3 1/2-year nightmare," he said.

For Clatterbuck, it was a no-brainer.

"He's family," Clatterbuck said of brother-in-law. That's what family does. They stick together and that's what we did."

Clatterbuck, who started as a volunteer firefighter at 15, became a firefighter/paramedic in 1994 and has worked as a paramedic for EVAC since 2004.

One brother had already gotten a kidney transplant and Karin Clatterbuck hoped to give Rob one of her kidneys, which during testing it was discovered she was in the early stages of the disease, protein tyrosine kinase. Now she is taking medicine to fight it.

And besides, Adam Clatterbuck was a better transplant match with Underwood than Karin.

That has helped Underwood in his recovery since the June 17 transplant, allowing him to reduce his anti-rejection medicine.

Clatterbuck returned to work on light duty Tuesday.

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