Man loses 52 pounds to donate kidney to his sister

Posted Online: Nov 17, 2008 09:06AM
Man loses 52 pounds to donate kidney to his sister

Jonathan Turner, jturner@qconline.com

By helping save his sister Pat's life, Paul Smith may be saving his own.

A machinist at John Deere Davenport Works, Mr. Smith, 53, has lost 52 pounds since April so he can donate a kidney to his sister, Pat LeGrand, 60, of Colona. The surgery is scheduled for Thursday.

“That in itself is amazing,” Ms. LeGrand, said. “He's gone way beyond being a brother. He has sainthood, as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't ask for a better family.”

The modest, soft-spoken Mr. Smith, of Silvis, blushes at the praise. “I am just an ordinary person doing something ordinary, definitely not a hero,” he said.

Ms. LeGrand was diagnosed with kidney disease 12 years ago, and has been taking blood pressure medication and eating a low-salt diet since. She is down to 18 percent kidney function, but has not required dialysis.

Her family started discussing a potential transplant last year, and her doctor recommended asking a family member to donate. Mr. Smith said he was the most logical candidate, since he had the same blood type, another sister has diabetes, and another brother has lung problems.

They chose the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to do the surgeries -- since it has an acclaimed kidney transplant program -- and Mr. Smith went there in April for blood tests.Mr. Smith learned his blood sugar was too high and was told to lose 15 to 20 pounds. The 222-pound man went on a strict low-fat, low-protein, no-soda diet (cutting out all sweets) and started walking with his wife, Diane, at least 2.5 miles a day, dropping 22 pounds from his 5-foot, 10-inch frame by Memorial Day.

After learning his blood sugar still was too high, he went to registered dietitian Jeni Tackett in Bettendorf, who recommended he eat more carbohydrates -- particularly whole-grain bread and cereal.

By September, Mr. Smith weighed 173, and today is 170.

“I feel that Paul Smith has lost weight in a healthy way since meeting with me in June. He is a very motivated individual with a supportive wife,” Ms. Tackett wrote in a letter to the transplant coordinator in Madison.

Through their daily walks, Mrs. Smith has lost 14 pounds.

“This whole thing has been a group effort,” Mr. Smith said. “She's my trainer. I found out that women really run the world. I wouldn't have lost it without her.”

“The risk for any surgery, not just a kidney donor, is that the risk is increased when working with an obese patient,” said Traci Hasson, a registered nurse at the Quad Cities Kidney Center. “They're more likely to have cardiovascular problems.

“Also, these patients are known to have higher risk for infection too, and higher risk for diabetes,” she said. “At some of the transplant centers, if you have high blood pressure or diabetes, you cannot be a candidate.”

Having a family member as a donor means the surgery can happen much more quickly, Ms. Hasson said. “If you are not getting a family member to transplant, you're on a very long waiting list. It's very unpredictable. It can be all their lives.”

Kidneys are by far the most in-demand organ for transplants nationally. As of Nov. 14, there were 77,972 people on a waiting list for a new kidney, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. In 2007, there were 16,628 kidney transplants performed in the U.S.

Everyone has two kidneys, which remove waste and excessive fluid from the body. The kidneys filter and return to the bloodstream about 200 quarts of fluid every 24 hours, according to the National Kidney Foundation. About two quarts are removed from the body in the form of urine, and the rest is recovered.

Mrs. Smith said she thinks many people don't consider kidney donation because they don't “understand you can live a healthy, normal life with one kidney.''

Mr. Smith said he used to be “the junk food king,” but never cheated on his diet. “The amount of food I used to eat, it was unbelievable. It was all day, snacking on chips, candy bars, chili dogs. I'd have 6 to 8 cans of pop a day.”

“We are very blessed by God,” Mrs. Smith said. “We have a wonderful family, a great church family, and a very strong, good group of friends.”

Mr. Smith said he knows he was destined to donate his life-sustaining organ partly because of an old pin he found on the street while walking one day. It says: “Don't take your organs to heaven. Heaven knows we need them here!”

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