Article published July 26, 2007
HEALTHY CONTRIBUTIONS
Toledo women become links in chain for kidney donations
Ron Bunnell, front left, of Phoenix is donating a kidney to Toledo's Angela Heckman, seated. Her mother, Laurie Sarvo, will contribute a kidney to the paired-donors alliance established by Dr. Michael Rees.
(
THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
)
|
By JULIE M. McKINNON
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Laurie Sarvo wanted to donate a kidney to her daughter, Angela Heckman, but the Toledo women didn't have the same blood type.
So as part of the nation's first chain of donations, engineered through the Alliance for Paired Donation Inc. in Maumee, Ms. Heckman is scheduled to get a kidney today given by the husband of a Phoenix recipient, and Ms. Sarvo will help another patient in coming weeks.
Otherwise, 32-year-old Ms. Heckman - who had received dialysis treatment for roughly 11 years when an autoimmune disorder caused her kidneys to fail - could have waited years instead of months on a transplant list.
"They showed us the paired donation [concept], and it was like the perfect thing," Ms. Sarvo said yesterday while visiting the University of Toledo Medical Center, formerly Medical College of Ohio Hospital.
"She's going to get help, and I'm going to help someone else," the 52-year-old added.
UT kidney transplant surgeon Dr. Michael Rees, who created and directs the alliance, started working in 2000 on the newfound method for finding matches. The alliance is geared toward increasing the number of transplants and is dubbed the "never-ending altruistic donor."Dr. Rees' father, Atlanta computer consultant Alan Rees, created the initial computer program used to match donors and recipients.
The first chain started July 18 in
Phoenix, when a donor from Petoskey, Mich., donated one of his kidneys for 53-year-old Barb Bunnell, who has a hereditary kidney disease. She is recovering well.
Her husband, Ron Bunnell, was willing but unable to donate a kidney to her, so he came to Toledo on Monday to give one to Ms. Heckman tomorrow.
"I can never pay him back," Mr. Bunnell, 54, said of his wife's donor, Matt Jones. "But I can pay it forward."
Ms. Heckman met the Bunnells on June 22, her birthday.
"It was a great birthday present," Ms. Heckman said soon after receiving a three-hour dialysis treatment yesterday. "It's like 'wow.' "
Ms. Sarvo, Ms. Heckman's mother, will start another chain of kidney transplants as a "bridge" donor.
Possible matches are being tested, and that chain's first transplant surgery could take place next month, Dr. Rees said.
"I think it's going to revolutionize the way we share kidneys in America, and it will all be based on altruism," he said.
So far, 52 transplant hospitals in 17 states are involved with the chain-donation program, and 32 other facilities are considering it, Dr. Rees said.
More information about the alliance can be found at the Web site, www.PairedDonation.org.
Dr. Rees said he recently helped write a proposal for a $3.5 million federal grant to evaluate the best way to optimize both the number of transplants and the quality of matches.
During a traditional paired transplant, when two patients with willing donors who don't match them are able to swap, surgeries are done simultaneously to ensure a donor doesn't back out of the arrangement, Dr. Rees said.
The transplant chain requires trust, and a psychological evaluation may have to be developed as well, he said.
Mr. Bunnell and Ms. Sarvo said they are thankful to be with their family members during their transplants.
"He got to be in Arizona for his wife's transplant, and I got to be here for hers," Ms. Sarvo said.
Added Ms. Heckman of her mother's upcoming kidney donation: "And then, who knows? ... I might be going with her."
Contact Julie M. McKinnon at:
jmckinnon@theblade.com
or 419-724-6087.
Permanent Link
|
|
 |
|
Search
advertisement
