My donor was a 22 month year old boy when I was blessed to receive 2 kidneys, in one of the first double pediatric kidney transplants to an adult in the United States. This special transplant had been successful in some European countries, but had only recently been approved in the United States. My surgeon told me I was the 6th person to receive such a transplant. The time was July 2006. I have been so lucky to live so many years and see my kids grow up and graduate and move out of the nest. It is always a bittersweet feeling for me, I think of that little boy who would be 18 years old today. The true heroes are his mom and dad. In a time of such a tragic loss, they donated several organs to many different patients. I asked my surgeon why was I deserving of the kidneys, when there were so many children waiting for a transplant. He explained to me that children can not receive a child’s kidney, they must receive an adult kidney. That was 2006, when I was 45 years old. I’m proud to say that I’m 61 now, and have seen all of my kids graduate high school, two have graduated from college, and one has been working for 10 years. Those little ones were 15, 9, and 4 when I was on dialysis waiting for an organ donor. They are 32, 25 and 21 today.
