Book club meeting sparks a transplant miracle

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Book club meeting sparks a transplant miracle

Posted: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 9:00 am | Updated: 12:39 pm, Tue Aug 2, 2011.
By Fran Memberg For The Crier | 0 comments

A song from the Broadway musical “Flower Drum Song” tells audiences, “A hundred million miracles are happ’ning ev’ry day.” Dunwoody residents Becky Springer and Amy Otto are partners in the miracle of life.
In February 2008, Springer, now 43, became gravely ill with a bacterial infection, Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, disease, for which adults are not commonly at risk. The infection caused Springer’s organs to shut down and led to septicemia, a serious, life-threatening condition caused by bacteria in the blood.
“My kidneys went first,” said Springer, who eventually recovered, but not before suffering a stroke and the life-saving amputation of her hands and feet.
After three months at Northside Hospital, Springer spent six weeks at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where she regained her strength and learned to walk with prosthetic feet. Twenty-four-hour kidney dialysis eventually was reduced to three-times-a-week, a regimen Springer continued after returning home.
Despite the loss of her hands and feet, Springer did not give in to hopelessness, a miracle in itself.
“I remember having a conversation with somebody – was it God or an angel? They said, ‘You will be fine,’” said Springer. “When I woke up and learned they had cut off my hands and feet, God had instilled in me peace and comfort and patience. I felt calm and at peace in my heart.”
Springer said that even the slow-down of her husband’s building business due to the economic downtown was a blessing, because it meant he could care for her and their three young daughters full time.
“You put your priorities in line,” said Springer’s husband, Paul. “The family is closer [now]. A job is secondary.”
Once home, Springer returned to being a wife and mother, with help from her husband and three daughters, Ashley, Mary Catherine and Gretchen, now ages 12, 10 and 5, respectively; a nanny helps with household chores, errands and grocery shopping. Springer has taught herself to do some everyday tasks like climbing stairs and locking and unlocking doors, and she can place phone calls and use a computer keyboard with a piece of healed bone that extends from her wrist bone.
By the beginning of 2009, Springer was placed on the kidney transplant list through the Piedmont Hospital Transplant Institute. Over time, no suitable match was found among friends, relatives or anonymous potential donors. Then Amy Otto and Springer joined the same book club.
“She’s everything I am – a wife, a mother, a sister [but] she has all those challenges. She’s amazing, smart, funny, a go-getter,” said Otto about what encouraged her to consider donating a kidney to Springer.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, the most commonly given organ by a living donor is the kidney. People usually have two kidneys, and one is all that is needed to live a normal life. When a kidney is removed, the remaining single normal kidney will increase in size to compensate for the loss of the donated kidney. Of the 16,898 kidney transplants performed in the U.S. in 2010, 6,276 came from living donors.
After extensive research, and with support from her husband and two teenage children, Otto said, “I made up my mind. I’m going to do this. I could enhance someone’s life. I didn’t see a downside. I tell my kids, ‘If you can enhance someone’s life, it’s a wonderful thing.’”
In April 2011, Otto confided to Paul Springer that she wanted to be a donor. Becky was kept out of the loop to avoid disappointment if Otto wasn’t a suitable match, as had been the case with relatives and other friends.
At Piedmont Hospital, Otto embarked on a series of health and psychological testing required for potential donors. A living donor has to be in excellent health and have blood and tissue types that are compatible with the recipient; in addition, the recipient must be negative for antibodies in the blood that would reject the donor kidney. The donor must be able to accept the possibility that the transplant may not succeed.
Paul cautioned Otto about the chance that she might not be a suitable donor but, he said, “Amy was so confident.” In fact, every step of the way, from one test to the next, Otto proved to be a match.
“The cross match for antibodies is the critical thing,” said Barbara O’Neal, a Piedmont living donor transplant coordinator. When Springer proved negative for antibodies that would reject Otto’s kidney, O’Neal said her reaction was, “Whoa. We did a double take. I was very optimistic that things would work out. It’s wonderful when somebody finally finds [a donor].”
Encouraged, Paul finally told Becky about a possible donor, but at first withheld Otto’s name. “You’ll be excited to find out,” he told his wife. “I was shocked,” Becky said when she found out.
The kidney transplant surgery was performed at Piedmont on June 3, with donor and recipient in adjoining operating rooms. Each friend now has one normally-functioning kidney.
“I prayed for someone to give me a kidney,” said Springer. “I believe God picked Amy and said, ‘This is what you’re going to do.’ It literally was a miracle. The doctors couldn’t believe someone just walked in to be tested and it was a match.”
Now, said Otto, she and Springer have a bond. “When I see her it gives me a warm spot in my heart,” she said. And to those who have called her a hero for donating a kidney, she responds, “I’m not the hero, Becky is. She’s taken lemons and made them lemonade.”
Paul gives Otto more credit than she gives herself. “Doing something like that for someone is an incredible act,” he said.
Today, in Georgia alone, 2,952 people are waiting for lifesaving kidney transplants. Last year, 445 patients in Georgia received kidney transplants and 129 patients in Georgia died while waiting for a kidney transplant. For information about becoming a kidney donor, visit www.kidney.org. Kidney transplants have been performed at Piedmont Hospital since 1986. For information about the Piedmont Hospital Transplant Institute, visit www.piedmont.org.

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