Kidney Quest – Kidneys In The News

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.”

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.”

By Erica Molina Johnson / El Paso Times
Posted: 12/21/2009 12:00:00 AM MST

EL PASO — Organ and blood donations are two gifts that can save lives, but they’re gifts many don’t think about during the holiday season.

Lower Valley resident Manuel Corral wants the community to know how much organ donation can affect a person’s life. It completely changed his.

Corral, 41, received a kidney transplant Nov. 16 after spending six years on dialysis due to organ failure caused by hypertension and diabetes.

“I feel human again. I kind of felt like I was half-alive and half-dead while I was on dialysis,” Corral said. “We’re celebrating Hanukkah now, and it’s the best Hanukkah ever.”

His kidney was donated by a deceased 40-year-old North Texas woman.

“I feel very blessed. To the person who donated the kidney, there’s no way I can thank them. I don’t know how to do it,” he said.

But he’s trying. He’s searching for the words to thank his donor’s family in a letter, and he wants to live in a way to honor the woman he’s now tied to forever.

“I want to do something good in my life so they know something good came out of their loss,” Corral said.

Pam Silvestri, spokeswoman for the Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas, said between 100 and 150 El Pasoans are waiting for organs at any given time. About 80 percent need kidneys.

She said the number of people waiting for organs nationally was about 30,000 in 1995, but has since ballooned to about 105,000. About 80 percent need kidneys.

Silvestri said registering as an organ donor is a gift that can be given both to a stranger in need and to those the donor loves most.

“If you’re looking for something to do for the holidays for your family, if you take the time to register as an organ donor, it takes the pressure off them to make that decision during at an already difficult time when they’re losing a loved one,” she said.

People can register online to become organ donors.

Another lifesaving gift that health-care professionals hope the community keeps in mind this season is blood donation.

Though the holiday season fills many people with generosity, it’s also the time when the area’s blood supply can dip to potentially dangerous levels.

Donors become busy with holiday concerns or they get sick, and businesses and schools that would normally host blood drives close or trim operating hours during this time of year, said LuAnn Wieland, spokes woman for United Blood Services in El Paso.

“It’s just a harder time for us to get (donations) through the blood drives,” she said.

The agency, which provides blood for West Texas and Southern New Mexico, needs to collect about 150 units of blood every day to keep the region’s 18 hospitals supplied with blood. The region needs about 42,000 units of blood a year.

Wieland said that although the supply is now stable, on some days during the holiday season only 20 to 50 units of blood are collected.

It is crucial to keep the supply up during this time of year, she said, especially because elective surgeries often surge at the end and beginning of the year, and because the season can bring a spike in car crashes or other accidents that require blood transfusions.

“People think (blood) is just for accidents, and of course it’s used for accidents, but it’s used for cancer patients on an everyday basis. It’s used for transfusions,” Wieland said.

“People do need blood, and the blood supply has to be there.”

Erica Molina Johnson may be reached at emolina@elpasotimes.com; 546-6132.

http://www.scripps.org/news_items/3550-a-priceless-gift-living-organ-donors-give-of-themselves

Karny Stefan was relaxing at home, watching a movie, when she received the e-mail that would change her life and save Jeff Wilson’s. The e-mail was from Christy Wilson, a business colleague who Karny knew distantly through her job as CEO of Walden Family Services. Christy’s husband of 23 years, Jeff, urgently needed a kidney transplant. He would not survive long enough to make it to the top of the transplant list, so the Wilsons were looking for a living donor.

As Karny considered this request, the next line in the movie was, “You know, I was pretty close to your grandfather. I do have one of his kidneys.”

I thought, you have got to be kidding me, Karny recalls. I knew then that I had to do it.

Eight months later, Jeff Wilson received one of Karny’s kidneys.

Searching for a donor
At age 60, Jeff Wilson had a trifecta of problems that led to kidney failure: age, high blood pressure and diabetes. Moreover, with type O negative blood, Jeff could donate to anyone, but could receive organs only from a type O donor. These factors combined to put him 7 to 10 years out on the transplant wait list and with less than 10 percent of his kidney function remaining, Jeff couldn’t wait that long.

There are two types of kidney donors, cadaveric and living, and there are not enough cadaveric donors available to meet the need for donations, explains Christopher Marsh, MD,, chief of transplant surgery at Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation. And, as the incidence of chronic kidney disease continues to grow among the U.S. population, so does the waiting list.

The Wilsons felt the only logical step was to try to find a donor on their own. Christy, executive director of the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation and a member of Circle of Life 100 at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, embarked on a massive e-mail campaign, sending out a request for volunteers to everyone she knew.

We got a hundred or so e-mails from people telling us that they would help if they were the right blood type or didn’t have family who might require a kidney from them one day, recalls Christy. But we only had four serious donors step forward two who ultimately felt that they should keep their kidneys for their children, and one who never really began the testing because Karny stepped forward and was so sure that she was to be the donor.

“I have my husband back”
There are six genetic markers that, ideally, will match between donor and recipient. One is considered a good match. Jeff and Karny had three. Dr. Marsh and the Scripps transplant team performed the transplant in April of 2009. Jeff spent about four days in the hospital. Karny’s kidney was removed laparoscopically; she was in the hospital for just two days, but the change she saw in Jeff was immediate.

The morning after surgery, I asked a friend to take me to the intensive care unit. I saw Jeff and our faces just lit up. It was the first time I had ever seen color in his face, Karny recalls, tearing up. And, Christy looked at me and said, I have my husband back, and that was the best part.

Today, Jeff works out at the gym, spends time with friends, serves on the Community Advisory Board for Scripps Encinitas, and is looking forward to college football games and trips with his wife. And Karny? Because she had to lose about 10 pounds before the transplant, her kidney function is actually better with one kidney than it was with two.

Living donors needed
Last year, Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation performed 30 kidney transplants; seven kidneys were from living donors. So far this year, there have been eight living donors. The program also performs liver, living liver, and pancreas transplants.

Living donors are usually family members, so this was unusual in that someone donated out of pure altruism, says Dr. Marsh. If more people stepped forward like this, we could substantially increase transplants and reduce the waiting list. People need to know that they can donate a kidney and still have normal function for the rest of their lives.�

Karny is living proof that live donors can give organs and still function as well or better than before.

I think what people need to know is that it’s very easy. There is a lot of testing, but the actual surgery is easy, she says. I don’t have children, I’m healthy, I didn’t have any reason not to do this. And, I think there are a lot of people like me. Why wouldn’t you?

–

By Carolyn Weaver
New York
10 October 2009

An estimated 62,000 people in the United States have severe kidney failure. To lead a normal life, each needs a new kidney, preferably one transplanted from a healthy living donor. Some are lucky enough to have a family member or friend with a compatible blood type who is willing to donate.

But a few will receive a kidney from a complete stranger, an “altruistic donor,” as they’re called, who has decided to undergo surgery to save the life of someone he or she may never know.

Daryl Julich, from the state of Iowa, is one of those rare people. He traveled more than 1,600 kilometers to give away a kidney at New York Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Daryl and his wife, Sher Jasperse, have come to New York City from their home in Iowa so Julich can give one of his kidneys to a stranger. He’s motivated, he says, by his Christian beliefs.

“For me when you give something, things come back to you tenfold,” he said. “It’s like giving birth to a child, but I’m not giving birth to life, I’m giving quality of life to someone. And that’s pretty neat.”

An Internet kidney registry matched Julich with a patient whose family members can’t donate to her because their blood factors aren’t compatible. Julich and his wife paid for their trip to New York and will lose several weeks’ pay. They expect nothing in return, but hope that Julich’s gift will begin a donation “chain” that will save many lives.

Sher Jasperse explains.

“Someone who needs a kidney, they may have a family who would like to give a kidney, but is not a match for them,” she said. “So, that family member makes themselves available to give to another person who needs a kidney, and then someone from that family gives to another family, and often an altruistic donor can start that process. The hope is that there will be an endless donor chain of people giving to other people.”

Officials at New York Presbyterian Hospital have told Julich only that the recipient is an otherwise healthy woman, 76 years old.

“And they said, ‘How would you feel about that, would that deter you from giving?’, and I said ‘No, not at all’,” Julich said. “We just put too much emphasis that when someone gets old they’re not useful any more. That’s not true.”

New surgical techniques have made kidney transplants more successful, and less risky and painful for the donor. Julich’s operation will require only a short incision in his belly button.

Surgeon Joseph Del Pizzo inserts a tiny telescope into Daryl’s abdomen, using images projected on overhead screens to guide his surgical tools.

Once the kidney’s surrounding tissue is snipped away and the arteries sealed off, the operating room lights go back on. The surgeon pulls the kidney through the tiny incision, and carries it in a plastic jug to the operating room across the hall.

There the hospital’s chief of transplant surgery, Sandip Kapur, takes over. The patient is already unconscious, her abdomen opened. Unlike Julich’s donor operation, this surgery requires a large incision. The operation takes about three hours.

“She’d been waiting a long time, and she’s very lucky,” he said. “Because she was very highly sensitized, it was very difficult to get a good match for her, and then due to a stroke of luck, she had this wonderful altruistic donor who stepped forward.”

For Daryl Julich, there are several days of pain ahead, but a sense of accomplishment.

“You know, whenever you give, you receive. I feel like I’m receiving quite a bit. It’s just incredible, a gift that I can only do once,” he added.

Julich and Jasperse met the recipient a week later, a day before their return to Iowa. They say the woman and her husband thanked them, and all four hugged.

A month later, the recipient’s son underwent surgery at New York Presbyterian to donate one of his kidneys to a stranger, leading to more donations and, as Daryl Julich hoped, an unbroken chain.