BEQEMPGWDY
Living
and Giving: Could You Be a Living Donor?
THANKFULLY,
Neil Simon’s story is becoming more common as more
people benefit from living organ donations, due to recent advancements
in transplantation
technology and drug therapies. Last year in the United States, 6,313
transplants were performed from live donors, according to the Organ
Procurement and
Transplantation Network.
It
is not a decision to be made lightly, however, and there are many issues
to consider:
• Living
donation does not change life expectancy for donors, nor does it increase
the risk of kidney failure.
• To
donate a kidney, you must be in good health and have normal kidney
function. The prospective donor and recipient must have compatible
blood types.
• Even
with one kidney, a healthy person has seven or eight times more kidney
function than a patient on dialysis.
• Kidneys
from living donors offer recipients better chances of long-term survival
than cadaver kidneys.
•
The cost of the donor’s evaluation, testing and surgery are generally
paid for by the recipient’s Medicare or private health insurance.
• Consider
what impact the surgery and recovery will have on your overall health
and lifestyle.
To
learn more about living donation, visit www.livingdonors.org, where
you can access message boards to chat, ask questions, find
support and tell your story. |
By Richard F. Denno
Earlier
this year, playwright Neil Simon (“The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot
in the Park,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Biloxi Blues” and
many more) was recognized for his lifetime achievements with a coveted Monte
Cristo Award by the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center.
After battling polycystic kidney disease and undergoing dialysis, Neil
Simon (left) received a kidney from his publicist and friend, Bill Evans
(right). Chester Higgins, Jr./The New York Times
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Simon,
a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, often talks about his craft, but
he focused on another topic in his acceptance speech. “Life’s a play
and sometimes you just don’t know how it is going to go,” said
the 80-year-old Simon.
That
was certainly true when Simon, who suffered from polycystic kidney disease,
was told he needed to start dialysis in 2002. He opted for hemodialysis
treatments three times a week, and, unfortunately, experienced some common
side effects,
such as nausea, severe cramps and memory loss. As his condition deteriorated,
his doctors suggested increasing dialysis treatments. Dreading more dialysis,
he sought other options.
Doctors
at the Rogosin Institute, which is affiliated with New York-Presbyterian
Hospital and Weill Medical College of Cornell University, said a transplant
at his age would not be a problem. What could be difficult, however,
was
getting a kidney from a living donor, which offers the highest success
rate in transplantation.
Although
Simon had seriously started thinking about a transplant, it didn’t
become a real possibility until a routine phone call with Bill Evans, Simon’s
publicist for nearly three decades.
“
He says, ‘What’s new?’ I said, I have to get a donor for my
kidney,” recalled Simon at the tribute. “Bill was quiet, and then
said, ‘I’ll do it.’ It was unbelievable that someone was going
to do this for me. We had tests, and we were a match.”
Evans
maintained that part of his lack of hesitation was because he considered
Simon part of his family. He said in an interview for
The
New York Times
that he “was raised to believe that if a loved one is in trouble, you show up.” Plus,
when Evans had some personal problems, Simon was there for him.
He said he also did research that showed one can lead a perfectly
normal life with one kidney.
The
Rogosin Institute Transplantation Center team performed the surgery in March
2004, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell.
Following
the surgery,
Evans
wrote a note to Simon, joking: “My kidney loves living on Park Avenue,
but it’s really looking forward to Bel Air in a couple of months.”
Currently,
Simon is busy writing a sequel to “The Sunshine Boys,” and
like many transplant patients who have been given a “second act,” he
finds time to
be a more precious commodity.
He
concluded his acceptance speech at the O’Neill tribute by saying, “I
just want to bring Bill up here. So I feel much better. I can’t believe
what this guy did for me. I love him. Bill, I wanted to thank you for all you
did for me – and thank you for it tonight.”
