Kidney Donors Meet Recipients At Livingston Hospital

LIVINGSTON, NJ — For some people, choosing what to give for a wedding gift is a struggle. But for Kathleen Pruss, the choice was simple: her kidney.

Earlier this month, Pruss – along with dozens of other donors and recipients – got the chance to meet face to face as part of an event held by the Renal and Pancreas Transplant Department’s Living Donor Institute at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

The emotional meet-and-greet included an appearance from newlyweds Rodney Williams and Laurie Croom. Williams had been on dialysis for a year prior to his surgery before being paired with his eventual donor, Pruss, and her husband, Paul.

Williams said that it was wonderful to get a chance to meet the woman who saved his life and gave him a chance to get married.

“Her willingness to donate a kidney shows how people care enough about others to help them,” Williams said.

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Other donors and recipients got a chance to speak at the event, including Tamara Lomax, who said that her decision to donate a kidney to a complete stranger was inspired by her own experience with congenital blindness.

“I often ask myself, in what way can I help that is the most impactful?” Lomax said.

According to Saint Barnabas, the hospital’s Renal and Pancreas Transplant Department is one of the largest programs in the United States, transplanting more than 300 people each year. Half of those are made through living donor transplants.

“There are over 100,000 patients with kidney disease on the national waiting list with a current waiting time of five to seven years,” Saint Barnabas stated.

“Each day, many people die in this country unable to obtain an organ. SBMC has close to 1,700 people on our list that are waiting for a deceased donor kidney. Living donor transplants, on average, last about twice as long as deceased donor transplants, thus transplantation with a living donor kidney is considered the best treatment option for those with end stage renal disease.”

To help address this shortage, Saint Barnabas has established a “Kidney Paired Donation Program.” As part of the program, patients who have a willing-but-incompatible donor are given the option of joining an exchange registry to be matched with other people in the same situation.

For more information about the Renal and Pancreas Transplant Program at SBMC, please call 973-322-5938, or visit www.transplantkidney.org

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Photo: Saint Barnabas Medical Center