Wife of Dover man who received transplant gives her kidney to help another

Article published Jul 16, 2009
Wife of Dover man who received transplant gives her kidney to help another

DOVER — Down in New Jersey, a retired police officer was undergoing dialysis Tuesday, counting the days until an "angel" from New Hampshire arrived in New York City to give him one of her kidneys.

"I'm 100 percent on board with this," said Jennifer Gregoire, who recently sold her home in Rochester and is moving to Newton.

She'll leave today and go into surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia on Friday, ending a mission she began earlier this year to give the gift of life.

But really, her quest is rooted in the kidney transplant her husband, Ken, a Dover native, received six years ago from his sister Michelle.

"I wouldn't have him now if it weren't for her donating her kidney," Gregoire, 37, said. "I'm trying to pay it forward."

She and Jim Collis, a 49-year-old married father of two teenage children, have a website — floodsisters.org — to thank for their connection.

Run by the Flood Sisters Kidney Foundation of America, the site allows people in need of a transplant to connect with people willing to donate. Three sisters started the foundation in 2007 to spread awareness of the alternative ways people can take to finding an "altruistic," or unrelated, living donor without going through the national waiting list.

The sisters encountered challenges in their pursuit until they turned to an online classifieds source to find a donor. Results were mixed, and some people wanted money for donating their kidney, which is illegal. Soon their search gained media attention and calls from people across the United States, and even the world, started coming in. Their 68-year-old father was saved.

"We're very grateful for saving our dad and putting it forward to save others," said Jennifer Flood.

So far, the site has 63 members —34 patients and 30 donors — but Collis will be the first one to receive a transplant.

As of Tuesday, there were 102,386 people on the donor waiting list, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit organization that administers the nation's organ procurement and transplantation network. Nearly 9,350 transplants took place between January and April.

Collis used to be on the list, which yielded potential matches. But with the first, his doctor didn't feel comfortable using the kidney because it came from a young child, he said. Another match was identified for Collis, but the donor was already deceased and kidneys from cadavers do not have the same success rate as those from the living. Besides, Collis already knew that Gregoire was undergoing testing required before surgery so he passed on the cadaver donation in favor of Gregoire.

"Ninety-eight percent of transplanted kidneys begin working immediately versus with a cadaver it's only around 50 percent," said Collis, who lives in Clifton, N.J. and was forced to retire when he started dialysis two years ago for an autoimmune disease confined in his kidneys, which filter blood.

Gregoire, who works for an affiliate of Exeter Hospital training customer service staff, had to wait a few years after her husband Ken's transplant before she could volunteer for the donation. He's "doing great now," but the transplant was followed by a stroke and medical setbacks that prevented her from being able to take the time to prepare and heal from surgery.

Fifty-five years after the first successful living donor transplant, Gregoire said she expects to be out of the hospital by Sunday and back at work by July 27.

The transplant will be over, but the friendship will remain.

Collis was the first person the Gregoires contacted after coming up with a list of 15 to 20 people who were in need of a transplant and turned to the Flood Sisters foundation for help. Jennifer said she felt "uncomfortable" choosing someone. In Collis, she saw a young father with teenage children who made a career out of helping people.

"I think the biggest thing was I wanted him to have the opportunity see his kids graduate from school and walk his daughter down the aisle," she said.

Gregoire called Collis one night and introduced herself. He recalled being a bit skeptical at first after coming across "deceptive" people claiming to want to help through online classifieds. They talked more, and soon he knew she was "the real thing," he said.

The transplant was set in motion. He contacted his transplant coordinator at the hospital. She reached out to the hospital. The hospital sent her a dozen vials for her blood samples. She complied and the hospital confirmed their blood type compatibility. By now it was early June, and she was off to New York for tests.

It would be the first time they met.

Collis' wife, Diane, cooked her famous lasagna and everyone became close friends. The wives bonded over the changes their husbands' experiences brought their family, Gregoire said. Clearing snow, shoveling the roof and mowing the lawn are no longer jobs just left to the guys, she said.

"We've really created a nice friendship," she added.

"When someone does something like this," Jim Collis said during dialysis Tuesday, "there will be a bond forever. ... I would say Jennifer is without a doubt an angel and by her making her decision to donate a kidney it's giving somebody else their life back."

Dialysis has taken its toll on him. He said he felt "horrible" Tuesday but hopeful about the transplant and grateful to Gregoire's family for their support.

"I just think it's a great gift, and I don't think a lot of people realize you can live with one kidney" and rely on it to do the work of both, Gregoire said.

"I think more awareness is needed," Collis said. Though retired, he said he's looking forward to volunteering, maybe with the Red Cross or another public service outlet, as soon as he can.

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