SAINT PAUL, Minn. — When most people receive a gift, they can say thank you right away. But an Inver Grove Heights man had been waiting more than four decades to express his gratitude. And he finally got that chance.
On this first Saturday in February, kidney recipient Steve Erickson walked into the Downtowner Woodfire Grill in Saint Paul and immediately hugged Mary Zilka. He said, “I’ve been waiting to give you a hug for 43 years.”
Zilka, of Bloomington, is the sister of Erickson’s kidney donor.
Erickson was just 19-years old when he got a kidney transplant at the University of Minnesota back in 1966 at a time when transplants were still pretty new.
He said, “I had an 80% chance of not making it out of the operating room.”
But that kidney lasted 40 years.
It came from Zilka’s brother, Tom Zentgraf of Bloomington. Zentgraf was 29 when he died after having surgery for a congenital heart defect. His family donated his organs.
Zilka said, “You always wonder what happened… How did the transplants work out?”
Until now, neither Zentgraf’s family nor Erickson knew who each other were.
Still Zilka said of donating a loved-one’s organs, “I think it helps with the grief. You feel much better. You know that out of the sadness something happy will happen. And then to find out it was this happy.”
Erickson shared with them how wonderful his life as been over the past 43 years. Zentgraf’s kidney allowed Erickson to marry his high school sweetheart, Patty, and live a good life, raising two daughters.
Zentgraf’s other surviving sister, Trish Stefanson of St. Paul, was at the meeting too, sharing photos of her brother with Erickson.
Erickson’s sister, Susie Biastock of Eagan, came too. She also gave him a kidney in 2006, after the kidney from Zentgraf finally wore out. Still, Zentgraf’s kidney lasted twice as long as the kidney Erickson was born with. And both families now urge others to become organ donors.
LifeSource, a non-profit organ and tissue donation organization, helped connect the two families. And this is the farthest it has gone back into records to make such a connection.
Jill Halimi of LifeSource said, “Another family I had worked with was from 1979 so this was much earlier obviously.”
Records at the U of M mentioned the name of Zilka’s husband and that was enough to match the families up again so they could meet face to face and say thank you for the very first time.
Erickson said, “I think we have a friendship that should last for a long time.”