HometownAnnapolis.com
Maryland, Minnesota hospitals exchange organs
By SHANTEE WOODARDS, Staff Writer
Published 01/19/10
Everyone told Nancy Miller she was crazy when she announced her plans to donate her kidney to somebody – anybody – who needed it.
Glen Burnie resident Nancy Miller, left, checks on Cindy Wickesser, a patient at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Both women underwent kidney surgery this month. Miller, who originally planned to donate to Wickesser, gave her kidney to a Minnesota man, whose wife gave hers to Wickesser.
But she had worked at a dialysis unit before and wanted to keep others from enduring the ordeal she witnessed daily.
The Glen Burnie resident approached the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore with her plans last year, around the same time that a co-worker’s wife was being treated for kidney failure. Miller wanted to give her kidney to Cindy Wickesser, but they weren’t a match.
But Miller matched a man in Minneapolis who needed a kidney, and Wickesser matched his wife, who was willing to donate. So both UMMC and the Hennepin County Medical Center made arrangements for a two-way kidney swap on Jan. 7. All parties have healed well, officials said.
Miller “used to work in dialysis and she knows how rough it is, and it is rough,” said Wickesser, 54, of Carroll County. “Some days you feel great and some days you feel like crap. … If I worked (in dialysis) I would’ve given up a kidney, too.”
Wickesser was expected to leave the hospital Friday, while Miller only stayed overnight after the surgery. The operations were performed at the respective hospitals.
“Cindy is my hero. She’s such a wonderful person,” said the 44-year-old Miller, who works for a company that builds power lines. “Of course there’s pain with any type of surgery, but I’ve had the flu that was worse than this. It’s not hard.”
Nationally, there are more than 300,000 people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Maryland, 9,209 people are on the list.
Wickesser had long been having problems with her kidneys. Her husband, Craig donated one of his to her in 2003. But that began to fail last year, and by April doctors told her she would need a new kidney. That was around the time that Miller told doctors at UMMC that she was willing to be an altruistic donor. When she learned about Wickesser’s case, she said she wanted to give a kidney to her.
“The first reaction I get when I tell people I’m going to do this … is, ‘You’re crazy’ or ‘Why would you do this for someone you don’t know?’ ” Miller said. “But I tell them, ‘If it was your husband, your wife or your child, wouldn’t you want to do this for them? … This is someone else’s husband, wife or child, so they kind of understand.”
When Miller and Wickesser didn’t match, arrangements were made for a swap with a recipient in Minnesota. But that recipient was seriously ill and died before the procedure could take place. Last summer, another potential match was arranged. This time it was for 73-year-old Floyd Johnson, who could use Miller’s kidney, and his wife, 60-year-old Kathie Blomstrand, who was willing to donate to Wickesser, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The surgery was rescheduled over the course of several months, until final arrangements were set for Jan. 7. The procedure took a great deal of planning, since operations on both donors had to occur simultaneously so that the kidneys would arrive in the best condition, said Dr. Matt Cooper.
Both Blomstrand and Miller underwent surgery at the same time that morning. Their kidneys were put on their respective planes by 1:30 p.m., and both were received at the two hospitals by around 5 p.m. Cooper then placed the new kidney in Wickesser, and everything was completed by 9 p.m.
“We try and minimize the amount of time that the kidney is out of the human body,” said Cooper, UMMC’s director of kidney transplantation. “Efforts are always made to try to have the transplant recipient (surgeries) occur as quickly as possible. In most circumstances, where the donor and recipient are at the same hospital, the operation overlaps, so the recipient’s operation has already begun before the donor.”
Wickesser remains grateful to her direct donor and Miller, who helped make it possible.
“My gosh, I don’t know what we’d do without her,” Wickesser said. “I’m mad at her, though. … I’m all swollen and my hair is all knotted, but she looks great.”