Golfer donates kidney to brother

[okarol]

Updated Mar 2, 2011 9:17 PM ET

Golfer donates kidney to brother

Beth Allen is a golf professional, but not one of the famous ones. She’s American, but she travels the world to make a living playing the game she loves.

But to her family, she’s much more. She’s a life-saver. Literally.

On Tuesday, Allen, 29, from southern California, donated a kidney to to her older brother, Dan.

“I'm all done!” she tweeted after the surgery at Scripps Green Hospital in San Diego. “Feels like I've done 10 million sit ups but I'm ok!”

“My kidney worked for my brother right away!” she said in an e-mail to Golfweek magazine. “I haven't seen him yet but my mom said that he looks better than he has in years. He will be out of the ICU this morning & I will get to see him later.”

On Feb. 2, while playing in the Australian Women’s Open, Allen received word that she had been approved to donate.

Dan Allen, 38, had been undergoing a daily 10-hour dialysis.

“He doesn’t even know what it’s like to do what we take for granted,” Beth Allen told Golfweek.

Dan Allen, 38, learned about his kidney condition when he was 26. He went to see his doctor because of hay fever, and was told that his kidneys were the size of a 13-year-old’s. He received his first transplant in 1999.

Dan Allen had been back on the transplant list for 13 months. His mother, Carolyn, tried to donate last year but was rejected for health reasons.

Beth Allen’s surgery kicked off National Kidney Month. Dr. Bryan Becker, immediate past president of the National Kidney Foundation, told Golfweek that the waiting list for kidneys numbers about 78,000. About 16,000-17,000 transplants are performed each year, he said; of those, about 7,000 are from living donors.
 
Beth Allen’s stronger kidney is no guaranteed cure for her brother, but Becker said there are patients who have received three to five transplants.

Beth Allen’s kidney function will be roughly 10 percent less than if she had two healthy kidneys. She’ll likely need six weeks to recover from the surgery, her longest break from golf. Becker said she will feel the pull on her incision when she swings.

“It will be a constant reminder to her for a while of having donated,” Becker said.

For more on this story, go to Golfweek.com.

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/Golfer-Beth-Allen-donates-kidney-to-brother-030211