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What's Mine Is Yours
Living kidney donor realizes the
lifesaving impact of his gift.
Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
D
avid Graham says he always knew
"only what the average person
knows about organ donation."
And, as indicated on the back of his drivers
license, he added, "I wanted to donate my
organs when I died."
But after seeing the benefits reaped when
he donated one of his kidneys to a very sick
young woman this past April, Graham has
come to understand the remarkable benefits
of living organ donation.
"Thousands of people die every year
waiting for an organ to be donated:' said
Graham, 33, of Farmington Hills. His hope
is that others will realize this alternative
donation option and "will consider donat-
ing:' he said.
The recipient of Graham's left kidney is
a 22-year-old woman not
related to him — the daugh-
ter of a former co-worker of
his wife, Robyn.
"She had a genetic defect
that shut down both kid-
neys," Graham said. "This
also made it hard to find a
donor. The doctors did not
want to take a kidney from a
family member in case they
Kidney donor
had the same defect"
David Graham
Organ donations from
non-relatives are the exception. And despite
being a cross-racial, cross-gender donation,
Graham was as perfect a match as a family
member would be.
"The body doesn't not look at gender
or race when it comes to body parts': said
Graham. "All the body cares about is blood
type. My antigen match was a three-out-of-
six. A six-out-of-six would be a twin match
so mine was the equivalent to what a family
member of hers would have:'
David Graham's father, Bill Graham of West
Bloomfield, described his son's attitude as
"life-defining," namely, "if this woman doesn't
get a kidney she will die, and no one else has
offered — so I have to."
David Graham's three-and-a-half-hour
surgery at the Henry Ford Transplant
Institute at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit
was overlapped by the recipient's nearly
five-and-a-half-hour operation, begun when
his was almost complete.
Graham was amazed that right after the
surgery the recipient felt better. "It doesn't
24
June 28 • 2007
take long for the body to start cleaning
itself:' he said. "I felt good that the kidney
was working properly and her body had not
tried to reject it!'
During much of the day of the surger-
ies, Graham's wife and his parents, Susie
and Bill, stayed at the hospital along with
the recipient's family, with each of them
checking in on one another and on the two
patients.
"It was really joyous waiting with the
woman's family:' said Bill Graham, who
several years ago volunteered to be a lung
donor for David's close friend, a cystic fibro-
sis patient who could not accept it because
he required a double-lung transplant.
A Worthwhile Choice
David Graham's recovery began with the
two-day hospital stay. "The day after surgery
I was eating a corned beef sandwich and
a cookie,' he said. The recipient's
recovery time, he added, "was
much longer and more painful
than mine!' She is just returning to
work part time, about two months
after the surgery.
Because of the physical require-
ments of his job as a remodeling
contractor, Graham took five weeks
off from work. "I arranged the
time off by working as many days
as I could to accumulate as much
money as I could before the proce-
dure."
In addition to donating a kidney, Graham
is also on the bone marrow donor registry.
When his late sister, Alex, was baffling can-
cer he underwent apheresis (a blood dona-
tion process) for her.
"I guess that's where it started:' he said.
"I guess that put something in the back of
my mind to help others if I could. I had the
chance to give a young girl a long, healthy
life by giving away a body part I really didn't
need. I wasn't out for glory or a medal. I just
felt I needed to do what was right for me."
"I was raised in a family that believes
in charity and kindness," Graham added.
"I feel good about helping someone have a
better life.
"It's not the quantity of life, it's the qual-
ity that matters:' Graham said. "You can
have a big car and a large house on the
lake but in the end does it make you truly
happy? Sometimes the things in life that
make a difference can't be bought with
money." II
Giving Life
Transplants from living donors
are becoming common.
Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
W
ith nearly 100,000
Americans awaiting
organ transplants, organs
donated by living donors offer a life-
saving alternative to those transplant-
ed from deceased donors.
Typically only one organ is donated
by each living donor, compared with
the many that can be transplanted
from a deceased donor. But, still, living
organ donation has greatly increased
the amount of organs available for
transplant.
Since the first successful living
donor transplant was performed
between 23-year-old identical twins in
Boston in 1954, 86,000 living donors
have offered organs.
So far this year, in addition to the
1,943 deceased donors in the U.S.,
there are 1,534 living organ donors.
There are advantages to living
organ donation, including the oppor-
tunity to schedule the surgery rather
than having it performed as an emer-
Information and statistics for living
organ donation, provided by the
United Network for Organ Sharing
(UNOS) in Richmond, Va., include:
Guidelines:
•Donors must be in good health
and free from blood pressure con-
cerns, diabetes, cancer, kidney dis-
ease and heart disease
•Typical donors are between ages
18-60.
•Gender and race are not factors
in determining a successful match.
•Donors' medical history is
reviewed and a physical exam and
sometimes a psychological evalua-
tion are performed.
Procedures:
•The traditional procedure for kid-
ney donors involves a surgical inci-
sion around the donor's lower back
and side, requiring a five to eight-
day hospital stay with return to work
after about six weeks.
•Laparoscopy may be used to
recover kidneys from the donor's
abdomen through a series of small
gency operation. This allows the recip-
ient time to begin taking immuno-sup-
pressant drugs to decrease the risk
of organ rejection. Transplants from
living donors are often more success-
ful because there is a better tissue
match between the living donor and
the recipient.
Among the types of organs that
can be delivered by living donors, the
kidney is the most frequent type, with
the remaining kidney compensating to
do the work of both.
In Michigan, 3,276 individuals are
on waiting lists, of which 2,671 need
kidneys.
Other organs transplanted from
living donors include segments of the
liver, which regenerate to full function.
Lobes of the lung and portions of the
pancreas and intestine may also be
transplanted.
And when it is determined that the
lungs of a deceased donor will func-
tion best if transplanted along with
the donor's heart, the living recipient's
healthy heart may be transplanted
into another recipient.
incisions involving a shorter recov-
ery time.
Risks:
•Some pain and discomfort are
expected, along with risks of major
surgery.
•Kidney donors may develop
infections or bleeding.
•When a portion of the liver or
pancreas is donated, the liver or
spleen may be injured.
•Psychological consequences may
result, especially from those pres-
sured into donation or if the recipi-
ent rejects the donated organ.
Donation Costs:
•Health insurance coverage var-
ies, with most private insurance
plans paying 100 percent of the
donor's expenses. I 1
For information on organ dona-
tion, call the United Network for
Organ Sharing at (804) 782-
4800 or access the Web site at:
unos.org .