Ex-relative to Donate Kidney

[okarol]

Ex-relative to Donate Kidney
Friday, September 26, 2008
By Allison Gibbons
Contributing writer

After his kidneys failed more than a year ago, Calvin Hall, of Oswego, went on dialysis.

Hall said the failure was caused by a renal disease that is often the cause of nephrotic syndrome in children and kidney failure in adults, and requires a transplant. He said he never expected to find a match within his extended family which meant he could have expected the average wait time for a kidney donor, roughly five years.

But when his former sister-in-law, Leah Overton, of Fulton, went as the first family member to get tested, she was a match.

"I was shocked and happy," Hall said. "I never thought it would happen."

Overton is a single mother working part time and going to school full time to be a nurse.

She said despite the risks, she remembers feeling excited when she found out she was a match in June. She wants to donate one of her kidneys because Hall, along with her sister and grandfather, "practically raised" her. And after the death of her parents, she said she wants to try and keep her family together.

Hall's divorce from Overton's sister didn't exile him from the family, said Josephine Dashnau, Overton's aunt.

"I'm very proud of her. I think it's one of the most courageous, unselfish things anyone can do. And I'm a nervous wreck," Dashnau said.

While Overton said the surgery costs are covered by the kidney acquisition fund, the weeks of recovery afterward are not. So to offset the costs of her recovery and living expenses, Dashnau and friend Bonnie Bowering organized a spaghetti dinner benefit for Overton on Saturday at Bodee's bar in Fulton.

"I've never had surgery before," Overton said, so she is a bit nervous. But most of her fears were alleviated by the research she did about the procedure.

After the surgery, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 17, Overton will remain in the hospital for three days.

"He gets out after 24 hours," she said, laughing.

For six weeks, she will not be able to lift anything, including her son Shaiden, 3. "My sister and my friend are going to support me through it," she said.

After two weeks, she can go back to school, but not work. While the surgery itself is not a concern, her job does not pay to cover "voluntary surgeries." The benefit money will be used to support her during those six weeks she cannot work, she said.

Bowering, via an e-mail, said it is a great thing Overton is doing. "It sure takes a lot to donate something like that being a single mom and going to school to be a nurse," she said.

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