Monday, August 25, 2008
After six mismatches, a man finds the perfect kidney donor at homeDave Riegler, whose blood type made it difficult to secure a transplant, is scheduled to receive a replacement organ from his wife Tuesday morning.
By CAMERON BIRD
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
On dialysis and distraught, Dave Riegler had no idea the ideal kidney donor lived nearby.
The 37-year-old Laguna Niguel father and husband had long been camped out on a transplant list with not-so-great odds. He spent hours each week hooked to a detoxifying but dehydrating dialysis machine in Mission Viejo, where senior patients would pay pity to the weakened man who once worked out every day.
"They told me, 'you're too young for this,'" he said, sitting next to his wife, Andrea, at the couple's home on Friday. "I never got any elder wisdom."
After an autoimmune disease crashed Riegler's kidneys in April 2007, his wife tried to put the diagnosis in context. Andrea, who works as a property assistant at the Market Place in Irvine and Tustin, learned that, in 2006, 3,916 patients died while grasping for new kidneys.
Another 7,000-plus people were in the same boat as Dave – sitting, waiting and being drained.
Andrea, unaware that she was capable of saving her husband's life, punctuated several online journal entries with a plea for help: Dave needs you.
Six people, including Dave's mother, came forward to donate. Each underwent meticulous testing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and one by one, each was disqualified.
Though Dave's type-O blood made him a universal donor, it narrowed his options as an organ recipient. Andrea, who wished she could be the one, thought she was out of the running because she recalled having an incompliant blood type.
Then, Cedars-Sinai opened the door to non-type-O donors – a contingency plan. More than a year after something turned viciously in her husband's body, Andrea got the chance in March to turn her advocacy into action.
Testing revealed that she, a previously in-the-dark type-O, was a near perfect match for Dave. When the confirmation landed in her e-mail inbox at work, she burst into tears and couldn't speak.
"We were stunned, we laughed, we saw into the future and it was filled with hope," Andrea wrote in the journal. "It was a great day for our little family."
Tuesday morning, after several sessions of therapy aimed at suppressing Dave's immune system to facilitate a clean transplant, the couple will be wheeled into separate rooms at Cedars-Sinai.
"It's kind of like a marriage," said Ellen Shukhman, transplant coordinator at the hospital, who added that spouses often make ideal matches. "We take their hands and walk them down the surgical floor. And we hope for the best."
If the lead-up to surgery is like a wedding, Dave's and Andrea's reunion later in the day will spark something comparable to an extended honeymoon.
A honeymoon called healing.
That long, drawn-out process will take place in the home of Dave's mother, who is watching over the couple's 10-year-old daughter, Ashlee.
"His mom can't wait to get her hooks in him," joked Andrea.
Despite the couple's optimism, Dave said he could've likely avoided dialysis and the ensuing pain if the match were brought to light earlier.
And then there's the issue of money.
Dave's on Medicare, but at some point will have to seek out a new line of work. Returning to his previous post in a cancer research lab is not an option, he said, because the environment would leave him exposed to airborne infection.
But he's looking forward to getting off the "renal diet," a regimen that strictly limits sodium and forbids potassium.
He wants orange juice.
He wants back the muscle mass that has disintegrated.
He wants to play-wrestle with Ashlee and "be a real husband again."
"When you're sick and looking at death," he said, "the only people you can rely on are in your immediate family."
Contact the writer: cbird@ocregister.com or 949-553-2915
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/dave-andrea-husband-2136400-couple-type
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