Senator Wergin's kidney donation helps sister Loni

Senator Wergin's kidney donation helps sister Loni

By Joel Stottrup

State Senator Betsy Wergin, R – Princeton, gave one of her kidneys to her sister Loni Knase, of Coon Rapids, on Friday, through a transplant at the Mayo Clinic.

Knase, 64, will have to be on anti rejection drugs the rest of her life, Wergin said during a telephone interview from her bed at the Mayo Clinic’s Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn., on Sunday.

Knase, on another floor of the same hospital as Wergin on Sunday, also spoke by telephone.

Knase said she didn’t feel so much different the day of the transplant, other than feeling sleepy, but did feel a marked difference the day after.

The difference was an improvement in her head, Knase explained. “My head felt clearer, because I usually feel kind of cobwebs [in my brain,” Knase said. “I feel clear and more alert. And of course, I am putting out urine now, which I hadn’t done in some years.”

Donor names drawn from hat

Knase felt the “cobweb,” or lack of clarity in her brain beginning sometime after having kidney failure about 5 1/2 years ago and having to go on dialysis, a process that filters most of the toxins out of the blood.

Knase right away sought to have a kidney transplant from either her sister Betsy or sister Marian.

Like someone choosing who should get to handle a task, Betsy’s and Marian’s names were put into a hat and one was drawn – that of Marian.

However, there would be a hitch. As part of the testing that would precede the transplant process, it was discovered that Loni had breast cancer.

The kidney transplant would be put on hold until after Loni could be free of cancer for five years. That was accomplished and the transplant process began anew.

Then there was another change in the plans. Marian by then had developed a heart problem to the extent that she could not be the donor. So Wergin won by default to donate the kidney.

This summer Wergin and Knase began working toward the big day of the transplant.

Wergin spoke excitedly in the days leading up making the trip with her husband Richard to Rochester for the transplant operation.

“It’s something you really want to do,” Betsy Wergin said. “She (Loni) hasn’t been healthy since age 11.”

Wergin pointed to Loni having strep throat and a high fever as a young girl leading to health problems.

Then during some point in the dialysis treatments in the past five years, Knase “developed a rare disease because of the dialysis,” Wergin said.

“I just can’t wait to see her feel good,” Wergin said about a week ago.

Wergin, for her part, was apprised by medical people about what she could expect with having only one kidney after the transplant.

“Once my body adjusts to having one kidney, life will be exactly like it was,” Wergin said.

Wergin modified that by saying she has been told she couldn’t play “tackle football,” or go into the “boxing ring with one kidney. But then those weren’t things Wergin did anyway.

Wergin talked in advance of the transplant how everything would work on transplant day. She explained how her surgery to remove the one kidney, would begin at 8 a.m. on Aug. 24, and sister Loni’s surgery would begin a half hour later, not far from Wergin’s surgical station.

It would mean the kidney would be in a “fresh” condition for transplanting into her sister, Wergin said.

Wergin mentioned watching a video last month on such transplants and went through three days of tests and classes to prepare for the transplant surgery.

“I’m kind of strange, but I thought it was absolutely fascinating,” Wergin said about watching a video on transplanting a kidney. “Some people couldn’t watch that.”

She was “shocked,” however, she said, that it was not a “bloody surgery,” just having about two to three teaspoons of blood.

When Wergin spoke on Sunday about how it went, she said it took place as she said it would.

Betsy and Loni’s five sisters and four brothers, along with other family members were at the hospital during the transplant.

All of the family members gathered before the transplant and prayed. There are always risks in any surgery so there were some worries, Knase said from her bed on Sunday on the transplant-recipient patient floor.

“I’m doing good,” Knase said when asked on Sunday morning how she felt.

One thing Knase is happy about is not having to go through dialysis like she did. She had four-hour dialysis sessions three times per week.

“I felt sick . . . icky” after each one, Knase said.

Having a healthy kidney will also have some diet concerns, she said. Knase said she expects to have more energy, more time for herself that she had spent in dialysis, and is looking forward to trips that don’t have to be scheduled around dialysis.

Knase said on Sunday that she could be out of the hospital as early as two days from the day of the transplant to begin about a month-long stay at a house in Rochester for transplant recipients. She will have frequent blood tests during that time.

Wergin, who now joins the ranks of having donated a major organ to someone, was out of bed during the evening of the transplant day and was allowed out of bed the next morning.

Wergin talked last Sunday about already seeing an improvement in sister, Loni.

“She was gray for so long and now already she is pink,” Wergin said. “It is amazing.”

“I thank all of the people for all their support, all their prayers and thoughts,” Knase said.

“It’s just amazing,” Wergin said, “to think you can just go to sleep [under general anesthesia] and in a little while wake up and you’ve given up a part of your body and someone can live healthy.”

Wergin also expressed appreciation that the world-famous Mayo Clinic is located in Minnesota, and how its medical staff “worked hand in hand” with staff members at Fairview, who drew blood and urine from Wergin for pre-transplant tests.

Wergin said there was close contact between Mayo medical people and her primary physician at Fairview in Princeton, Dr. Daniel Fordahl, whose job is to coordinate the care of Wergin before and after the transplant.

Wergin said prior to the surgery that she realizes there is a percentage of cases where something can go bad for either the donor or the recipient in a transplant.

But Wergin expressed optimism and faith about the outcome of the transplant because of the prayers she had made.

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