A sister’s gift keeps giving 25 years later

By Kelcy Dolan
Posted 1/5/16

In 1990, Mike Mooty and his sister Barbara Blanchette rang in the New Year with a kidney transplant surgery, Barbara donating a live, healthy kidney to her younger brother.

Now, 25 years later, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

A sister’s gift keeps giving 25 years later

Posted

In 1990, Mike Mooty and his sister Barbara Blanchette rang in the New Year with a kidney transplant surgery, Barbara donating a live, healthy kidney to her younger brother.

Now, 25 years later, the siblings, along with Mike’s wife Trisha Mooty, and nearly 80 of their family and friends celebrated the successful surgeries, and the lovely years the siblings have been able to spend together thanks to the transplant.

“Back then a lot of people didn’t survive the surgery, nonetheless for 25 years after,” Trisha said. “We wanted to celebrate that and them.”

The celebration was 25 years to the day, right after Christmas.

“It was an open house. We just asked people to come by with good wishes,” Mike, 68, said.

More than 25 years ago, when Mike was donating blood, doctors realized that his creatinine numbers were slightly elevated. Although they said there was no need for worry yet, he should keep an eye on that.

Creatinine is typically filtered through the kidney and high numbers meant that there could have been something wrong with Mike’s kidney function.

“I went to the doctor regularly and for a while things seemed to be holding steady,” Mike said. “Then the other shoe dropped and the doctor said I was going to have to make some decisions.”

They finally decided Mike was suffering from nephrotic syndrome, experiencing swelling and pain of the body, restless legs, and tiredness, among other symptoms.

Mike called his sister Barbara, now 73, to discuss the options, and when she asked for the doctor’s name, declaring she would be donating one of her kidneys to her younger brother,

Barbara said, “He was trying to give me a hard time and I said to him, if I were drowning you would save me, right? Well that’s what we are going to do.”

Transplants, Barbara explained, have a better success rate with a living donor, especially a familial one. Luckily, Barbara was a perfect match.

The trio, along with other family members, traveled to Boston the day after Christmas for the surgery.

The siblings were holding hands and chatting previous to the surgery, when the nurse came to get Barbara. To lighten the mood, Mike joked, “Remember, I want the good one!”

“He’s spoiled. He wants everything, even my kidney,” Barbara said.

Barbara, a self-declared “no nonsense woman,” said that she didn’t donate her kidney just because Mike was her brother, but because of whom her brother was.

“I did this because of how wonderful of a person he is,” she said. “He is a great brother, father, husband, uncle and grandfather. He’s the nicest person I know. I can wake up with peace every day knowing I helped him.”

“I couldn’t have done this without her,” Mike said. “I got to march my daughter down the aisle, see my son marry, and be around for my grandchildren.”

Immediately following the surgery, Mike saw a positive difference. Having been in denial about how severe his condition was, he woke from the surgery and felt like he was “finally coming out of a fog after being stuck in it for so long.”

Barbara, on the other hand, having to get a rib removed to access the kidney, was not feeling as well.

“Here Mike is hopping down the hallway and I was feeling so bad,” she said. “But, I think it has been a nice 25 years for the both of us.”

“Knock on wood,” Mike has been healthy since the surgery. He said remaining healthy after a transplant is all about “compliance,” going to your doctor regularly and making sure to take all your medications on time.

“You don’t want to waste that gift,” Mike said. “I was lucky enough to have a sister to donate, but there are some who sit on the list for a long time and others who go through several transplants because they don’t always last or their body keeps rejecting it.”

Having done the math, Mike said without the transplant, between hospital stays and regular dialysis, if he had survived, all the time would have accumulated to more than six years of his life.

“That’s a lot of time where you could be bettering yourself or working for others,” Mike said.

A retired teacher, Mike continues to teach occasionally for the University of Rhode Island and is also very active with the Rhode Island Organ Donor Awareness Coalition; he and Barbara have worked with individuals and families in need of transplants or thinking of donating to raise awareness about organ donation.

“People should not be afraid, especially today when we have all this new technology available,” Barbara said. “There are so many people in need of a transplant. To be able to help someone you love like this, to save their life, it’s worth it.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here