NEW ORLEANS -- Many people who need a kidney transplant end up on a waiting list, sometimes for years. Others die waiting.
But this story may give all families with a sick loved one, hope for the future.
It's the first times it's ever been done in Louisiana, and one of the few times it's been done in the U.S. And it all started with one decision made by a 23-year-old.
"You know it's just a little bit of pain to save someone's life and I feel like everyone should be more willing to give," said Tamara Greene.
An entire room full of people is now bound together for life. That's because Tamara got on the Internet at her home in McComb, Mississippi, and found a program at Tulane where she could give one of her kidneys to someone, anyone, a perfect stranger in need.
"My uncle has renal failure and because he was on the list for so long he can't have a transplant now, because he needs a heart, a pancreas, and two kidneys. So just knowing that if there are more people that were willing to give, he could have been saved. All the trouble and all the hurt, it's just something that I feel like we can do," said Greene.
There are 800 people just on the Tulane list alone waiting for a kidney. Some of them have family or friends who want to give them a kidney but they are not a match. So here's the domino effect that happened when Greene came forward.
A friend wanted to give a kidney to her co-worker in the Attorney General's Office, but they did not match. Next, a wife wanted to give to her husband, but they did not match.
So when Greene came into the picture, computers searched the gene pools of those in need and she matched. She gave her kidney to the worker, Renee' Credeur Bergeron, in the Attorney General's Office.
That freed up Bergeron's secretary and friend in the Attorney General's Office, to give to the husband on the list who was not compatible with his wife. And that freed up his wife to give to a completely different man on the list.
Bergeron's life has changed since she got her new kidney.
"Until sickness really affects your family, you really don't understand the impact that it has on your life. It completely changes you life and we need donors. And I have two young kids and I didn't want to go on dialysis. So I'm very blessed, very blessed," said Bergeron, voice cracking with tears in her eyes.
All six surgeries, three to remove the kidneys of the donors and three to transplant in the recipients, happened over two days at the end of May, with a team of surgeons all operating at the same time to make this domino paired, donor kidney exchange work.
"For the past two years we've actually been maintaining a list of couples that are willing to participate in a swap, but have never been able to do that just yet," said the Tulane transplant Surgeon, Dr. Anil Paramesh.
"I hope they have a healthier happier life. I feel like everyone deserves that opportunity," said Greene.
Kidney transplants from a living donor are much safer and the kidney lasts about twice as long as one from a deceased person.
To sign up call Tulane at 1-888-988-5344 toll free from out of town or 988-5344 if you are local.
