The Hidden Cost of Donating an Organ

My husband was only 29 when we found out he needed a kidney transplant. We had been married less than three years and we had just celebrated Gabrielle’s first birthday.

The news was shocking. Two months later, racked with fear and confusion, we were thrust into a whirlwind of doctor's appointments, therapy sessions, surgery and dialysis.

Members of our family were tested as they volunteered their organ to save my husband’s life. Fortunately, my husband’s brother was a match. We were spared the agony of waiting for another human being to meet a tragic end.

After seven years this new kidney began to fail.

Why? There can be so many causes. Drugs used to fight rejection can actually damage the kidney that is keeping you alive. Or your own body simply refuses to accept the foreign entity.

We were once again put on a path for a kidney transplant. This kidney came from my sister’s daughter.

My niece had been living with us for a few years while she finished college at Cal State Fullerton. Turns out she shared my husband's blood type.

She volunteered without hesitation and against the wishes of some family members. She would not be deterred. Her courage and determination for her purpose humbled me. My husband is not her blood relative and she owed us nothing.

She told me in a quiet moment that she wasn’t doing it for me or for my husband. "I’m doing it for the kids because I can’t imagine my life without my father."

As we all waited at the hospital for the surgeries to be over I was filled with fear. I couldn’t bear to lose either one of these people. I refused to believe that such a wonderful gift would be met with the unthinkable.

The usually stoic transplant surgeon came out to update us on the outcome. He was beaming. 

“Do you know what an incredible gift this girl has given?” Of course we did.

“Are you sure she is not a blood relative?” Yes, of course we were sure.

“This girl’s kidney is a one-in-3-million match for tissue type and antigen. You don’t see these kinds of matches in non relatives!” He could not have been more impressed and awestruck. He still talks about it, eight years later.

The same month that my niece donated her kidney she turned 25. She had passed the age in which she could continue to stay on her parents' health care plan.

She was denied coverage by every health care insurance company we called because she had the audacity to save someone else’s life.