Three receive donated kidneys in triple transplant
Published: May 19, 2005
Three donors gave kidneys to unrelated recipients in the third triple kidney transplant performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital, hospital officials said Thursday.
The transplants involved a wife who was unable to donate to her husband, and a daughter who wanted to donate a kidney to her father, but also was incompatible.
An unrelated donor, who had wanted to donate a kidney, was found to be a match for the husband. His wife was a match for the father, and the daughter was found to be a match for an Altoona, Pa. police officer.
The three transplants were performed simultaneously on Sunday, and all six are doing well, said Dr. Robert A. Montgomery, director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Johns Hopkins.
The unrelated donor, Barry Mendez, 30, said he decided to donate a kidney after a friend donated one last year. Mendez, a Christian missionary originally from Sidney, Australia, said his faith was a factor in the decision to give his kidney to Scott Keller, 30, of Kalamazoo, Mich.
“If I’m here to show love, hey, here’s an opportunity,” Mendez said.
Keller’s wife, Lisa, said the donation “is going to totally change our life.”
“For me, Barry is my hero. I can’t imagine anyone doing this. I have no words to express how I feel,” she said.
Mendez said he is a Christian missionary with a nondenominational group called Jesus Christians. Fellow missionary Francisco Gonzalez said about half of the group’s 30 members have donated kidneys.
The transplants were performed as part of Johns Hopkins’ paired kidney exchange program, which helps patients who have a willing, but incompatible, donor find a compatible kidney donor. In addition to the three triple transplants, eight double transplants have been conducted under the program. In March, Johns Hopkins held a conference in Chicago to design a national kidney pairing program.
Recipient Scott Keller said his appetite has already begun to return and he looked forward to eating pizza and other foods he had to avoid while on dialysis, which cleaned the waste from his blood that his failing kidneys were not able remove. Lisa Keller said she was looking forward to not having to worry about traveling too far from a dialysis center.
Lisa Keller donated a kidney to Robert O’Hara, 64, of Vestal, N.Y., who did not attend the announcement because of slight blood pressure problems.
Lisa Keller said she was at first a “little hesitant” about donating her own kidney to someone she didn’t know, concerned about what would happen if the kidney received by her husband failed and she was left with one.
“After I started to think about it more, I said ‘I’m going to do this,”‘ she said. “My husband has waited too long, I don’t want someone else to have to go through this.”
O’Hara’s daughter, Kelley O’Hara, 40, of Falls Church, donated her kidney to Altoona police officer Ashley Day, 41. Day said he felt overwhelmed when he was called three weeks ago and told of the triple transplant, noting his 9-year-old daughter “has never really seen me off dialysis.”
“Yes, it’s definitely a miracle,” Day said.
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