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South Whitley man donates kidney to complete stranger in southern Florida |
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Friday, November 30 2007 |
By BECKY HAND
Community editor
The best gifts come from the heart, or so they say. But the Craig Dailey family from southern Florida would say they come from a kidney.
Mark Pratt, 39, of South Whitley, the pastor at Victory Christian Fellowship, which meets at the YMCA on Sunday mornings, was surfing the Internet when he came across matchingdonors.com.
He was scanning the information when a particular person drew his interest.
This man had been adopted, just like the Pratt’s youngest daughter Kaylin, a special needs child, with cerebral palsy and severe mental retardation.
The tug at his heart began.
Pratt read on and found that the man, Craig Dailey, 48, was in end stage kidney failure and their blood type was a match – O positive.
So he made a call and offered his kidney, knowing that it was unlikely that he would be a complete match.
This started the process of determining compatibility and tests were done. In two weeks doctors found he was as good a match as a family member would be. His heart was beating a bit faster.
Pratt called his family together, knowing that this would impact all their lives. His wife, Michelle, a registered nurse, knew exactly what this would involve.
They explained to their children that there were risks involved but there was a chance to give a man back a normal life instead of almost certain death.
Josiah, 17, and Brianna, 15, with very little hesitation, agreed that this was something their dad must do.
So, this week, three days after Thanksgiving, Mark and Michelle left for Shand Hospital in the University of Florida’s Science Center.
Mark was admitted and by request of all involved, he was put in the same room as Dailey. Tuesday morning they were wheeled into the operating room.
Two days later, Mark had a bit of a fever and just a touch of pneumonia, which Michelle was not concerned about, but Dailey was out walking the halls of the hospital.
It seems the kidney started working the instant it was hooked up, in a sense, giving Dailey back his life. And to Craig Dailey, just like George Bailey, and thanks to Mark Pratt, it’s a wonderful life!
Mark and Michelle Pratt should be returning home this weekend and the family wanted this story told so that other people might know about the organ donor program.
“So many people are in need,” says Michelle.
According to the Matching Donors Web site, “although deceased organ donation is extremely important and life saving, you don’t have to wait until you die to be a heroic organ donor. There are greater than 80,000 people in the U.S. waiting on a list for an organ transplant. Seventeen people a day die while waiting. Although there are risks with undergoing any surgery, most live donors do very well and have no physical ill effects or alterations in their own health.”
The first successful living donor transplant was performed at Peter Bent and Brigham Hospital in Boston, Mass. 50 years ago, involving a kidney transplant between two brothers.
Technology has improved since then and most donors have little or no side effects afterwards.
“A live donation is the ultimate gift. There is an overwhelming satisfaction of giving life to another human being who would otherwise have a very poor quality of life or even die while waiting for a transplant,” states matching donors.com |
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Last Updated ( Monday, December 03 2007 )
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