By The Grand Rapids Press Editorial Board
December 22, 2009, 9:00AM
West Michigan is a place of givers, people who offer their time, experience, kindness and currency. They all deserve our thanks and praise for making this community better.
But once in a while, someone gives a gift so rare and consequential, it deserves to be held up and celebrated in a special light.
A selfless gesture by Grand Rapids firefighter Harry Damon reaches that extraordinary level. He donated his kidney to a perfect stranger this year, sparking what became a multi-state daisy chain of donations that ultimately saved 10 lives. Damon was recently honored by the National Kidney Registry, which has begun a national campaign to increase the number of live donor kidney transplants and save thousands of lives each year.
Kidney donation chains didn’t exist before 2007. That year, another Michigan resident, Petoskey’s Matt Jones, a young father, decided to donate his kidney to a stranger as a way to teach his children about selfless giving.
Mr. Jones’ powerful act set off what is considered to be the nation’s first and now longest-running open-ended kidney transplant chain. It has saved 20 lives and is still going. Mr. Jones, 30, and his chain of recipients and donors recently were featured in People Magazine’s 2009 “Heroes Among Us” issue.
Likewise, Mr. Damon’s altruism has been featured in The Press and many other publications nationwide.
In just two years, about 20 chains have been started, managed through the National Kidney Registry and the Toledo-based Alliance for Paired Donations.
Each chain starts with a so-called “altruistic donor,” and then survives on trust. There is nothing that legally compels the loved one of a recipient to continue the chain, but transplant doctors and advocates marvel at the strength and longevity of the chains, which have already helped well over 100 people.
The chain movement, adding to the “paired donations” registration efforts, is considered a promising way to reduce the growing number of people who die while waiting for kidney transplants.
More than 83,000 Americans are awaiting such transplants, and 12 people die each day because of a lack of donors. Total kidney donations, from both live and deceased donors, total about 17,000 yearly. Kidneys from living donors usually function for nearly 16 years, while a deceased donor kidney typically lasts about half that long.
Mr. Damon told The Press he started the chain to overcome a tragedy. He had spiraled into depression after his 21-year-old son, Nick, died in a 2003 snowmobile accident on the White Pine Trail.
He chose to do something powerful in Nick’s name as a way to reclaim his life and be there for his family. His kidney saved the life of Sheila Witney, a mom in California who had been on dialysis for more than six years. Her son’s kidney was incompatible for her, but he continued the chain by “paying it forward” to another recipient, and the chain stayed alive across several months and states, thanks to spouses and other relatives of recipients.
One family helped by a donation chain said it “opened a whole new doorway of hope.”
As Mr. Damon learned with his extraordinary gift, there’s no better door to open.
Tags: altruistic donor, Harry Damon