KANSAS CITY, Kansas (KCTV) – April Nuessen and Susan Brough have been best friends their entire lives.
“I don’t really have any childhood memories that don’t involve you,” said Brough, of Nuessen. “As kids, we always fought over rocks.”
“I mean, we fought like sisters,” Nuessen said. “We spent a lot of time at her house.”
Three years ago, Nuessen had to undergo dialysis and was put on the list for a kidney transplant. Brough said she never considered donating one of her kidneys to her best friend.
“I didn’t even really talk to my husband about it,” Brough said. “I said, ‘I hope you’re OK with this,’ and he said he couldn’t be more proud of you for wanting to do this. The thought of something happening to her and her not being in my life anymore was unbearable.”
Then they realized Brough wasn’t a candidate. The University of Kansas Health System asked them if they would be interested in being part of a living donor chain.
“Susan, of course, said, ‘Absolutely, I’ll do anything to get her a kidney,'” said Nuessen. “The rest is history.”
On average, one person is added to the national kidney transplant list every 10 minutes. Living kidney donor chains are one way to increase the number of organs available for transplant. They are set up when someone altruistically donates a kidney without having a recipient in mind, or when someone wants to donate to a friend or family member and is not eligible but still wants to donate.
Learn more about organ donation statistics here.
Dr. Sean Kumer is the chief of the Kansas City division of the University of Kansas Health System and a transplant surgeon. He is typically the donor surgeon in organ transplants and was Brough’s surgeon.
“Living kidney donations have many benefits,” Kumer said. “On average, these kidneys last three to five years longer than the average kidney from a deceased donor. It turns a middle-of-the-night surgery into a planned surgery, so the recipient knows they won’t need dialysis by this time tomorrow. Or they can avoid having to go on dialysis. It’s an everyday miracle.”
Both underwent successful surgery last week and are now recovering. Six more people – four recipients and four donors – are now connected in this donation chain. Based on this experience, both want to raise awareness of organ donations of living organs.
“Even if you’re doing this for someone you may never meet, you’re still saving their life,” Brough said.
“It can save someone’s life and possibly even create a chain effect where multiple people’s lives are saved,” Nuessen said.
All rights reserved.
