2 organs when there could've been none

[okarol]

2 organs when there could've been none

Feb. 5, 2007
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

by Laurel Walker
   
Sisters Catherine "Kitty" Shinkle, 65, of Muskego and Mary Elandt, 67, of Tucson, Ariz., share an inherited kidney disease with no cure. It put them - along with about 70,000 other people at the moment - in need of kidney transplants and in line for a long, long wait.

Their daughters each shared a willingness to give up a kidney for her mom. Yet when they proved medically incompatible, there was another way.

It's called a "paired donation." In their case, each offspring gave her aunt - not her mother - the lifesaving kidney.

This relatively uncommon process of kidney donations holds so much promise for saving lives you have to hope it spreads - and quickly.

It makes perfect sense between loving relatives who can work it out, like these families did. But it can also work with pairs of perfect strangers, when a willing donor proves incompatible to the needy recipient he or she wants to help. All that is needed is someone to unite such pairs.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore is a pioneer in such things, performing the first kidney "paired donation" between incompatible donor-recipient pairs in 2001. In November, they took it to a new level, performing a quintuplet kidney transplant involving five donor-recipient pairs.

The more kidney donors whose generosity can be put to use - even if they can't help who they originally intended - the faster doctors can chip away at the waiting list that never seems to dwindle.

Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center Transplant Program is a member of the Paired Donation Network, said Joan Heimler, manager of organ procurement at St. Luke's. The hospital can register its patients on the network.

See www.paireddonationnetwork.org or call St. Luke's transplant clinic at (414) 646-5410.

Froedtert Hospital's Transplant Center is "beginning to investigate" such a program, said Debra DeWees, transplant coordinator.

"To say we haven't done it is not to say that we can't do it," DeWees said. Call (414) 456-6920 for information.

The Shinkle-Elandt families, who live in four states, made their connection at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix.

On Wednesday, Kitty Shinkle is scheduled to get the kidney of her niece, Ann Elandt, 35, of Las Vegas. Last October, Mary Elandt got the kidney of her niece, Kathleen Harper, 37, of Goodlettsville, Tenn., at the same medical center.

"Sometimes I wonder if I ever felt this good," Mary said in a telephone interview Monday. "I have so much energy." Her sister had arrived over the weekend in Arizona and hopes her surgery and recovery bring her the same quality of life.

Both women inherited polycystic kidney disease, where cysts grow in the kidneys and gradually cause them to stop functioning. The women have a 50% chance of passing it on to their children, but their daughters did not inherit it. Kitty's was first discovered 10 years ago by ultrasound, almost accidentally as she was getting treated for a gallbladder attack. She then told her sister, who was also diagnosed with it.

Kitty's health deteriorated after her husband's death in 2005, and since then she's been on home dialysis four times a day.

"I didn't think it would be this life-changing," she said when I talked to her at her Muskego home last week. "I didn't realize how hard it would be and how tired I would be."

Her wait for a kidney transplant through Froedtert Hospital's Transplant Center was at least three to five years, she was told. But the donation from the daughters changed that.

"It was actually my daughter's idea," Kitty said. She said she was going to give a kidney no matter what, and if she couldn't give it to her mother, she could give it to her aunt. They broached the subject with the Elandts.

"I never dreamed that if my own daughter wasn't a match, my niece would be," she said.

Since her daughter, a mother of three, gave up her kidney, she's recovered rapidly and was hospitalized just three days. Kathleen is training to run a marathon in April, Kitty said.

As she and her niece await Wednesday's surgery, both are understandably anxious, Kitty said. She plans to stay with her sister in Tucson until she fully recovers. But if her recovery goes at least as quickly as her sister's, Kitty could be out of the hospital about Valentine's Day.

In some circles, the day of the big heart is also recognized, suitably, as National Donor Day for organs.

It's perfect timing to think about signing your organ donor card, and maybe do one better by thinking about donating a spare kidney.

JSONLINE.COM To hear Kitty Shinkle talk about the importance of organ donations, see www.jsonline.com/links Call Laurel Walker at (262) 650-3183 or e-mail lwalker@journalsentinel.com

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