Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993 TAG: 9307160387
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"After the transplant, I felt like another life had been restored to me," said Wilson "Billy" Fitzgerald, 41, of Roanoke.
Fitzgerald, looking fit, was introduced at a hospital news conference along with his sister, Maxine Fitzgerald, who donated one of her kidneys, and Dr. Joseph Hayes, the transplant surgeon credited with launching the first transplant program in Southwest Virginia.
"The donor is the real hero," Fitzgerald said, pointing to his sister, "next to the surgeon."
The siblings went into the operating room together on June 21, and five days later both were discharged. Hayes, who trained at the Cleveland Clinic, said their recovery has been remarkably trouble-free.
Fitzgerald, who suffered from hypertensive nephrosclerosis, a disease brought on by high blood pressure, said he has been listening to his sister Maxine "all my life."
So when he suffered renal failure and went on dialysis 10 months ago, there was little question she would be the one to donate a kidney if doctors determined they were compatible.
"Basically, I just said I would do it," said Maxine Fitzgerald, 47. The Vinton woman, an employee at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, said she had no anxiety about the donation.
"To see my brother walking around, it's a piece of cake," she said.
Another brother, Donald Fitzgerald, also was a compatible match and was willing to donate a kidney, but he lives in Florida and would have had to travel to Virginia for the operation. Another sister was not tested because doctors already had two good matches.
Humans can function on one kidney with no adverse effects. The life of the donated kidney is somewhere between 12 and 15 years or even longer, said Hayes.
Roanoke Memorial officials began the complex regulatory process to establish a transplant program at the Carilion Health Systems hospital more than a year ago, spurred on by local physicians who wanted a program that was more accessible for their patients.
Thursday, Carilion Vice President Morris Reece said the Fitzgerald transplant, along with two others that have been completed since June 21, justifies the decision.
All three transplants involved donors and recipients from the Roanoke area.
For Billy Fitzgerald, a father of four, the transplant program couldn't have come at a better time.
He had planned to have his operation at Duke University Medical Center and did not relish the long commutes to Durham for the intensive follow-up treatment that is required.
"It made all the difference in the world to have my family around," said Fitzgerald. "It was almost like a godsend."
The first 90 days after a transplant are critical, and Hayes said he has been able to see Fitzgerald every day since the operation because he is only 10 minutes away.
Hayes and his transplant team, including transplant nephrologist Dr. M. Mathew and two transplant coordinators, have evaluated, or are in the process of evaluating, more than 40 patients who need transplants.
Although some will go on national donor waiting lists, a phenomenal 60 percent to 70 percent have family donors, which speeds up the process considerably, Hayes said.
Hayes said he expects to perform around 30 transplants a year at Roanoke Memorial.
Meanwhile, Billy Fitzgerald and his sister plan to speak up about their experience, particularly in the black community where the percentage of willing organ donors is low.
"I'm definitely going to be an advocate for procurement," said Billy Fitzgerald, who worked at Grumman Emergency Products Inc. until the plant was closed recently. "My culture definitely needs to know that. Maybe people will get the message to sign the backs of their driver's licenses."
Diabetes and hypertension are the leading causes of kidney disease, and among blacks, particularly young black men, hypertension is especially deadly.
When it goes unnoticed for a period of time, as in Fitzgerald's case, the damage to the kidneys is irreparable.
"We have a disproportionate number of blacks on dialysis because of hypertension," said Mathew. Transplant advocates have encouraged more donation in minority communities because a match within a racial group offers the greatest chance for success.
by CNB