Kidney recipient ‘blown away’ by donation offer

Kidney recipient ‘blown away’ by donation offer

By BECKY HAND
Community Editor

Recently, we reported about the Mark Pratt family of South Whitley, and Mark’s lifesaving gift of a kidney to Craig Daley of Ormand Beach, Fla. This week we were able to speak with Daley via telephone and e-mail, and are able to give you … the rest of the story.
Kidneys are organs in the body that maintain the body’s balance of water and minerals, and filter out waste products from the blood. One test to determine kidney health looks at creatinine levels. Creatinine is a waste product of the muscles and is normally higher in someone with a higher muscle mass. “Normal levels of creatinine in the blood are approximately 0.6 to 1.2 milligrams (mg) per deciliter (dl) in adult males” according to MedicineNet.com. A creatinine level of two would mean that half of kidney function is lost and five means that 80-90 percent is lost.
Daley was given the diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease in 1994, a genetic disease affecting about a half million Americans each year. He was told that his kidneys would eventually fail requiring dialysis treatments. At the time, he wasn’t feeling too badly and so decided to wait on the dialysis. His creatinine levels were about nine at this point.
Daley knew that once he was on dialysis, the only way back to a somewhat normal life was to receive a kidney transplant. Being adopted, he didn’t have the obvious choice of a family member, but as his disease was hereditary, the chance was good that a family member would also have the disease. Finding a match would not be easy.
In April 2005, Daley went into end stage renal failure and began dialysis. Wikipedia.com calls dialysis “an imperfect treatment to replace kidney function because it does not correct the endocrine functions of the kidney.” His creatinine levels were at 18.
Trying to find more information on his condition, he found the Web site for Matchingdonors.com, a non-profit organization that matches people in need of transplants with people willing to be volunteer living donors. (Kidneys as well as the pancreas, liver and a lung are able to be transplanted from living donors, with a small chance of lasting side effects to the donor.) Daley signed up and began what he expected would be a fruitless wait.
But last spring, he received a call on his cell phone, and it was Mark Pratt, asking if he could be tested to be a living kidney donor for Daley. “I was blown away, said Daley, “I never thought I would actually find someone I had never met who would be willing to give me a kidney.”
From the first meeting when Pratt went to Florida to be tested, they felt an instant bond. “It was like we had known each other forever,” said Pratt. Daley felt the same bond, but his emotions were still riding high. What if they weren’t a match? And he still couldn’t comprehend that someone would give a part of himself to allow Daley a more normal life.
When the results came back that they were a very good match, there was still the wondering, “Will he go through with it?” said Daley. But to Pratt, it was a done deal.
Almost two weeks ago, Pratt was as good as his word, and the kidney was transplanted with complete success. Daley was up and walking two days later, and his fiancée Lara Copello said, “I had never known him when he had a properly functioning kidney. He really looks a lot healthier!”
Pratt has since returned home, but Daley can’t say enough about him. He calls their relationship a new life friendship and his kidney a priceless gift, the gift of life. They talk via phone or e-mail almost every day, and Daley and Copello are planning a visit to Indiana early next year.
Daley had his creatinine levels tested last week, one week after his new kidney was put in place. It is now down to one-and-one-half.

http://www.thepostandmail.com/content/view/76582/27/