Husband's Kidney A Perfect Match For Wife In Orange County

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA —They knew they were a perfect match but for this Huntington Beach couple, love goes way beyond skin deep.

Hermine Honarvar Rule, 50, struggling with critical kidney disease, needed an immediate organ transplant to survive. Family members offered, but no one was a match, all three suffering different health issues that disqualified them from a lifesaving donation.

Husband, Mark Rule, 58, offered to help move his wife further up the list by offering to donate a kidney to someone in need. While being examined, doctors discovered he was his wife's exact type.

Two weeks before their scheduled surgery, Hermine received news that brought them to pause. Another donor matched with her; a pedestrian struck by a car, due to be taken off life support.

Should she take her husband's kidney? Or the organ from a stranger?
After intense discussion, the couple decided to stay the course: Mark Rule would donate his kidney to his wife, and another person in need would receive the organ from the unknown donor.

"We liked the idea of two people benefiting (from his donation,)" Mark said. He added, after all, "we were truly made for each other."

The kidney Hermine Rule received from her husband in September is still a success, doctors at Cedars Sinai say.

He is back to running and working out regularly, as he was before the surgery. Hermine is back to work as a state administrative law judge.

"Honestly, if it wasn't for the 17 or 18 pills a day that I take, and my scar, it would be very easy to imagine it never happened," Hermine Rule says. Still, she knows that not all transplant patients are this fortunate or receive the same quality of care that she has. Together, the couple shares their rare kidney transplant story as a way to inspire other transplant patients, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

Tsuyoshi Todo, MD, a Cedars-Sinai liver and kidney transplant surgeon, tried to ease apprehension among potential living donors about the risks.

“Only the healthiest people can become donors,” Dr. Todo explained. “The risk of donation and renal failure or end-stage renal disease is negligible for a donor compared to the general population.”

Still, Todo believes that more people can be helped.

Over 113,000 Americans remained on the national transplant waiting list as of January, according to a spokesperson at Cedars-Sinai. Every day about 20 people in the U.S. die while waiting for a transplant.

Only the healthiest people can be living organ donors.

Living donors are still not covered by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, according to Cedars-Sinai.

Making it easier for people to become a living donor is one of Todo's primary goals, one he will continue to champion in his lobbying efforts for the Living Donor Protection Act. He adds that together "we can help more people."

Read Also: A Letter to My New Kidney