Retired Medford Police Officer Finds Kidney Donor

MEDFORD, MA – A retired Medford police officer has found a matching kidney donor, despite 10,000-to-1 odds. Bob Rockwell, who had been battling kidney disease for years, was faced with the real possibility of long-term dialysis due to a rare blood type and complex medical history, according to Tufts Medical Center.

Rockwell began searching for a match – his blood type has the longest wait time of any blood type in the area – and prepared himself for the risks associated with dialysis given he had bypasses in both of his legs due to peripheral vascular disease.

He was also sensitized due to previous blood transfusions, which meant he had "already been exposed to a huge number of molecules in other people's blood, and as a result his body would reject a transplant from the vast majority of potential donors," according to Charles Strom, surgical director of Living Donor Kidney Transplantation at Tufts Medical Center.

Rockwell was put on a kidney transplant waiting list that allowed him to receive offers from across the country, as opposed to just in the region, and found a match. On the day of his surgery, two friends who visited said he "hadn't looked that good in years," according to Tufts.

"The health benefits of this are dramatic — his transplant kidney has a high chance of still working in 10 years," Strom said in a statement.

Rockwell was a police officer for nearly 40 years, first in Stoneham and then in Medford, Medfordtop10.com reported. He has been living with chronic kidney disease for about three decades.

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