Today marks the TWELFTH! anniversary of my cousin's kidney transplant, the best April Fool's Day present my family has ever gotten. For those of you who don't know the story, my mom was set to donate one of her kidneys the morning of April 1st, 2003 to my then-19 year old cousin. My mom was a better match to my cousin than most people are with their own children, a miracle in and of itself.
After my mom went through the extensive testing, including a psychological evaluation, the surgery was initially scheduled for March 17th. In our Irish family, we considered a surgery on St. Patrick's Day to be good luck. However, my cousin broke her foot a few weeks prior, and after the surgery they wanted her up and about within two days. With a walking boot on, they felt this would complicate things, so they pushed it back a week. Then my mom developed a rash, and they weren't sure what was causing it. They wanted to rule out shingles so they pushed it back to April 1st.
During her last dialysis treatment on the afternoon of Monday, March 31st, the transplant team came to my cousin, her mom and my mom - who was just about to leave to go to be admitted - to tell her they had a cadaver kidney from a young man who perished in a motorcycle accident. By the time the surgery was complete, it was Tuesday, April 1st.
It has been 12 years and she has not had a single complication - knock on wood. We are truly grateful every day for the miracle of life the young man gave to our family. My cousin has seen age 20, now age 30 and beyond. She is my daughter's godmother and they are absolutely smitten with each other.
I don't want to be preachy, and I understand there are religious and moral reasons to not become an organ donor, but if you don't know anything about it and are not an organ donor I would hope you would at least find out more about it to make an informed decision. If you are an organ donor, thank you and please let your family know your wishes, or include it in your health directives.
Thank you for posting this! The cause is dear to me as my mother received a kidney from her brother when I was 5 years old. The kidney was fantastic for 20 years but she is now on dialysis and waiting for a donor (I am currently waiting for paperwork to go through so I can get tested to see if I am a match). My mom never complains but it will be such a relief when she can stop dialysis and go back to life as normal!
My dad's cousin survived for just shy of 31 years post-heart transplant. At the time of his death he held the record for the longest living heart transplant recipient. Our families are obviously very pro-organ donation.
Organ donation is an incredible gift. My husband and I are both organ donors and have had a talk about donating the organs of our children if, god forbid, anything should happen. We are in agreement that we would donate their organs if it did.
When my BIL passed away 5 years ago, he was an organ donor. His skin, corneas, and bones were all donated. His wife received a letter listing all of the (anonymous) lives he saved because of this. There were about 50 individuals on the list, ranging from young to old. It was a pretty incredible to learn how many people were positively impacted by his death (congenital heart defect).
I am very much pro-donate everything. My mom thinks I'm so morbid for openly talking about it, but really, if I die, my dead body could at least serve some purpose. I donated my cord blood last pregnancy and intend to do it again this time.
Also, if anyone is interested in being on the bone marrow registry, visit the Be The Match website. Signing up is easy and painless. Just a few cheek swabs!
I'm an organ recipient and I want to thank everyone for even considering being a donor. I wouldn't have my L if not for my gifted liver. I am so incredibly lucky.