Springs woman may find kidney from nonprofit

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Springs woman may find kidney from nonprofit

Melissa Cassutt
March 16, 2008 - 10:03PM
The Gazette

   Linda Carnell makes goodies to celebrate everything - even a new kidney.

 

   She plans to fill clear baggies with green and white jelly beans, tied with a ribbon that proclaims "It's a kidney!" The colors represent kidney disease awareness. The candy, the shape of the organ she needs.

 

   She recently learned her goodie bags will have to wait.

 

   The Gazette first wrote about Carnell in April. She has been struggling to find a live donor since she was diagnosed with kidney failure in November 2006. Her husband, Steve, was the most likely match, but he was eliminated after testing. Her daughter, Jenny Hammit, the next potential match, recently was found to be incompatible - only after Carnell went through four weeks of immunoglobulin and immunosuppressant therapy.

 

   But one of them may still save her life - by being a match for someone else.

 

   Carnell, 56, and Hammit, 32, recently submitted paperwork and blood work to the Alliance for Paired Donation, a nonprofit program that partners kidney donors with recipients. The program basically arranges swaps: Hammit will offer one of her kidneys to an unknown recipient in exchange for a kidney for her mom. Carnell's husband also plans to join the program as a potential donor.

 

   The alliance, which was created in August 2006, has assisted 17 transplants; nine more are in the works.

 

   "We haven't been doing this long enough to really say ‘If you're an O blood type you have to wait so long," says Laurie Reece, executive director of the Alliance for Paired Donation. "It's definitely shorter than waiting on the deceased donor list."

 

   University of Colorado Hospital and Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center, the only Colorado hospitals enrolled in the program, have arranged three transplants since joining the program in the fall.

 

   Vonnie Bagwell, transplant coordinator at the University of Colorado Hospital, said she thinks the turnaround could average six months.

 

   "It's just a way of using otherwise healthy donors," Bagwell said. "It's just an awesome concept that I really, really hope explodes."

 

   Thus far, University Hospital has registered 17 pairs in the program. More than 120 people are on the national list, which spans 21 states.

 

   Typically the organ swap occurs simultaneously, with four people in surgery at once. However, a handful of "altruistic donors" (donors who aren't paired with anyone) have started chain donations. In July, a Michigan man donated a kidney to an Arizona woman, whose husband then donated to a recipient in Ohio. The chain so far has yielded eight transplants, Reece said. Another chain, started in December, resulted in three transplants.

 

   Since donors typically pay for travel and time off work to donate, often only one person registers with his friend or family member. Carnell is different: In addition to her daughter and husband, other family members and friends (including her ex-husband's wife) have offered to be tested.

 

   Despite the setbacks, Carnell is keeping her spirits high - and continuing to plan her goodie bags.

 

   "You can make a choice to be negative or positive," Carnell said. "When you start thinking positive, it becomes second nature to you. Then when you have a negative thought, that's the one that becomes foreign to you."

 

   CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0152 or  melissa.cassutt@gazette.com

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