Social worker gives her kidney to a stranger

[okarol]

Published Saturday April 10, 2010
Social worker gives her kidney to a stranger

By Judy Horan
WORLD-HERALD CORRESPONDENT


Michelle Jack called her twin sister in September 2009 and said, “Will you need a kidney anytime soon? If not, I'm going to donate it.”

And she did to a complete stranger.

So, why would a healthy woman donate a kidney to a person whose name she may never know?

For Jack, 48, the idea was born earlier that year when two celebrities involved in transplants made the news.

“Natalie Cole had just been on ‘Larry King Live' and said she needed a transplant. More than 300 people responded and volunteered to be tested,” she remembers. Also in 2009, actress Natasha Richardson died in an accident and donated her organs.

Because of their fame, both women's stories received a great deal of publicity.

“I thought about those two events and asked myself, ‘Why do you have to be famous to have 300 people agree to be tested for you?' I made up my mind that I wasn't 300 people, but I could help one.”

She also remembered nine years before when a good friend was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. Jack immediately offered to be tested to see if she was a match. Her friend's sibling became the donor instead.

“Over the years since then, it crossed my mind off and on to donate,” Jack says.

A social worker for DaVita Dialysis in Hastings and Grand Island, Neb., she requested that the recipient be someone outside the dialysis company's network.

Jack, who lives in Hastings, didn't want to choose among the patients she works with. As a social worker, she gets close to the patients she counsels through the dialysis process.

The organ recovery system chose for her.

“I don't know who the recipient is other than he's a man in his 40s who was on dialysis,” she says. Both sides must agree they want to contact each other and then only after a six-month wait.

Some people cannot be a candidate for transplantation, especially if they have a recent history of cancer, heart disease or obesity. They also must agree to take care of their health afterward.

Many who have transplants try dialysis first.

“Dialysis sustains your life. Transplantation is an elective. It's not a cure, but another treatment for kidney disease,” Jack says.

She was in the hospital for four days and off work for a month after the surgery. The time off to recover was covered by sick leave and short-term disability. Expenses were covered by the recipient's insurance. Jack was back to normal health in two months.

Most people were supportive of her decision.

“I heard a few ‘Are you crazy?' but after they heard my story, they said it made sense. Others said they didn't know if they could do what I did.”

What if someday she needs that kidney she gave away?

“If at some point down the road something happened to my remaining kidney and I would need a transplant, I would be given priority on the waiting list.

“It was a positive experience all the way around.”

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100410/LIVING01/704109965