Our Member Kimcanada!! Son helps mother receive new kidney

Son helps mother receive new kidney

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Corey LeBlanc coreyleblanc@thecasket.ca

Christmas came about one month early this year for Kim Deveau Hoben and her family.
After battling kidney failure for more than four years, she received a new organ Nov. 28.
“It has been like gangbusters since the surgery. I have improved considerably,” the Frankville native said.
“It started to work while I was on the operating table. I have one stellar kidney.”
While Deveau Hoben was receiving her new lease on life, her son, Kyle, was providing that same gift to a donor in Toronto, a recipient from Saskatchewan.
Kyle, like his other family members, was not a match for his mother. Due to high antibodies in her system, Deveau-Hoben was a tough match.
When an opportunity came to help his mother through a live donor exchange program, the proud mother said he jumped at the chance.
Initially, she was against her son making such a commitment.
“He took that decision away from me. I didn’t want any of my family members to go through this process,” she said.
“I was very blessed. I had so many people – friends and family – who wanted to get tested,” she said, noting her sisters also took part in the process.
“With my kids, it was an ethical dilemma for me,” she added.
Nevertheless, she said Kyle continued to go through the testing process as required every few months.
“He never gave in. He never hesitated,” she added.
Deveau Hoben and her son registered last February when Nova Scotia became part of the program.
“A family member also must agree to donate an organ,” she said.
She added the process continued for almost year.
“It is an extremely careful process,” she said.
Updates came every three months. A match came last August.
“I was on dialysis. I was going nowhere fast,” she said about her condition when the match was discovered.
With the live donor exchange program, Deveau Hoben said the transplants must take place on the same day.
Deveau Hoben said she hasn’t seen her son, who spent three days in hospital, other than via web camera. She asked to see his surgery scar during their last conversation.
“I asked him did he realize what he had done for me.
“He gave me my life back,” she added.
“He thinks, or at least gives the impression, it is no big deal, but it was huge,” she said.
The proud mother said her son’s decision did not surprise her.
“He has always been so caring and loving,” she said of the 22-year-old.
She said live donors, including her son, are “heroes.”
While his daughter and grandson were undergoing surgery, Martin Deveau was working at his friend’s Christmas tree lot in Red Deer, Alberta, when a young mother and her daughter passed him an envelope. It contained $50 and a wish to help as many families as possible have a tree.
“It struck me, my daughter getting a kidney and my grandson giving up one of his kidneys . . . I’m having a really, really good holiday,” Deveau told the Red Deer Advocate.
“You can just feel that the spirit is there — you can just feel it.”
Deveau told the newspaper he intended to donate a Christmas tree, along with a $50 food voucher, to a family in need.
A couple of weeks later, Deveau Hoben said her family remains amazed by the gesture and everything great that happened on that day.
“That was crazy. Everyone has been on such a high,” she said.
She said “things just happened” that day, whether it was a case of everyone being more aware, she is unsure.
“We don’t have much but we are blessed,” Deveau Hoben said, echoing the words the young woman said to her father. He noted she did not seem to have much.
“That’s what struck my father the most,” she added.
Deveau-Hoben said donations, including food, toys and money continue to roll in at the tree lot owned by her father’s friend.
“It’s spiralled. We have all been really touched.”
With the holidays fast approaching, Deveau Hoben said she has much for which to give thanks, including feeling 100 percent different physically.
“Mentally, I am 10 times better than that,” she added.
She said people even notice she is speaking differently. She has come a long way since the five days per week of dialysis she had to endure prior to the transplant. That regimen spanned more than 18 months.
“After four years of hell, I have my life back,” she said.
Deveau Hoben said she has experienced dialysis treatments at a variety of hospitals, including St. Martha’s Regional Hospital. She was one of the first patients when the Antigonish unit opened.
Deveau-Hoben praised the staff and service.
“I have been treated at a lot of hospitals and they are second-to-none,” she said, noting the professionalism and caring.
“They have a personal touch. They treat you like a human being,” she added.
Topping Deveau Hoben’s to-do list is a return to the workforce. Because of the dialysis treatments and their effects, she has not worked since becoming ill.
“Of course, it is hard on your income and also your self esteem,” she said of being unemployed.
Deveau Hoben said her work with the Kidney Foundation will also continue.
“I have gotten my life back and I want to continue to give back,” she said.

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