His kidney transplants have run in the familyDiane Bell
UNION-TRIBUNE
July 3, 2007
For 15 years, Dina Macdonald has been kidney transplant coordinator at UCSD and now Children's Hospital. So it was a turnaround last month when she became an organ donor herself. The recipient? Her husband.
Medical tests found Dina to be a match for Jeff Macdonald, who has battled kidney dysfunction since a series of strep infections in his early 20s. His wife's kidney is Macdonald's third transplant. First, he received a kidney from his mother. When that one malfunctioned 20 years later, his sister donated a kidney. That was eight years ago. This time, no one in his childhood family was a match so testing progressed to his wife and three adult daughters.
Dina, although not a blood relative, turned out to be an ideal donor candidate. Medical research has proved that kidney size, compatible blood type and antibody analysis are more crucial than familial ties.
“If I had to do it over again, would I? Yes, absolutely,” says Dina, who faces a six-to eight-week recuperation. “Watching my husband get better every day was really worth it.”
By the time of the transplant, Macdonald had lost 40 pounds, was on dialysis three days a week, could barely walk around the block and faced a three-or four-year wait for a cadaver kidney.
When they took wedding vows of caring for each other in sickness and in health, Dina says she never anticipated their union would go quite this far.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/bell/20070703-9999-1m3bell.html
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