For a giving Mom, a loving daughter, a caring family
The confidence to say “yes”Bridget finally accepted the gift she needed in order to live, but only after she met the kidney transplant team at Geisinger. Several years ago, Bridget toughed out a painful bout with strep throat. The Wilkes-Barre native had a job to do, and taking time off from work was not in her nature. “I’m a busy woman,” she says. That’s the short description of this wife, mother of three, grandmother of seven, and 18-year veteran employee of the Wilkes-Barre area school lunch program. She and her husband, Ed, see their children and grandchildren every day, and she cooks for them all on special occasions. That sore throat became a turning point, however, for her lifestyle, her family, and her health. The start of a six–year declineWeeks after the sore throat healed, Bridget’s body began sending her signals, including debilitating and painful swelling, signals she could not ignore. Her physician diagnosed severe kidney damage, possibly caused by the strep infection. “My doctor told me I’d eventually need kidney dialysis and then a transplant,” she says. The idea of a transplant was a shock she wasn’t ready to deal with, and the constraint of dialysis wasn’t in her vision of the future, either. Determined to avoid both, she successfully followed a strict diet and medication regimen for three years. Then, however, Bridget’s body needed help to do the work her damaged kidneys could no longer do. She began the first of hundreds of trips to a local dialysis center. It was a rigorous schedule, three times a week for up to six hours for each visit. Making time for her grandchildren’s Saturday ballgames was impossible. Living donor, loving daughter“Early on, my daughter, Jill, wanted to be tested to see if she could donate a kidney,” she says. “But it’s hard for a parent to take an organ from her own child.” Transplants from a living donor have a greater success rate than those from non-living donors. Bridgett signed up for the long list of people awaiting kidney transplants from non-living donors. Those kidneys are in short supply. Every day, 18 people on that list in the U.S. die before a kidney becomes available. | Bridget's Story
Kidney transplant recipient Bridget recounts her experience at Geisinger. Jill's Story
Jill donated a kidney - the gift of life - to her mom. Listen to her story. Manish Gupta, MD, Bridget & Jill
Transplant surgeon Manish Gupta, MD, describes Bridget's case and care. |
Dialysis, diet no longer enough
Despite her best efforts, her kidneys continued to decline. Physicians at Geisinger encouraged her to reconsider Jill’s offer to donate one of her kidneys. After years of dialysis treatments—over 3,000 hours in all—Bridget finally agreed to meet with Geisinger transplant specialists.
“After speaking with Dr. [Manish] Gupta at Geisinger—and meeting the whole transplant team—Ed and I decided right there and then that I would have a transplant,” she says. “Never in my life have I met anyone like them. I trusted them and was no longer afraid of the surgery. They made me realize not only that a living donor was best for me, but that Jill would be fine, too.”
The transplant team told her that if Jill ever needed a transplant that she would, as a donor, go to the top of the list. After eight years of saying no, she accepted Jill’s offer.
“I could see what kidney disease would do to me,” she says. “I had to live for my family. The people at Geisinger gave me the confidence to say ‘yes’ to the transplant.”
Jill and the entire family were joyous.
Unusual symptoms
After six years of declining health, Bridget had slowly grown used to the very strict diet, including no more than 14 ounces of liquid each day. Adhering closely to doctors’ orders, including medication and regular office visits, she avoided the fatigue, nausea, and loss of appetite that are common in people with kidney disease.
“I assumed that some other symptoms I had were related to the kidney disease, but it wasn’t,” she says. “If I hadn’t made regular visits to my family doctor in addition to the transplant specialists, I might not have found the colon condition as early.” She had colon surgery to correct the condition.
A new beginning
A year later, on a pleasant fall day in October 2008, Bridget began what she calls her new life, with a kidney donated by her daughter. [See Jill’s story.] link to Jill’s story when available After the transplant surgery, her transformation was remarkable.
“I woke up from surgery feeling great,” she says. “I have never felt this good in all of my life. I have a new life thanks to my daughter, to that Man upstairs and to the doctors at Geisinger. God bless them all.”
Instead of going to dialysis three times a week, she and her high school classmate, Madelyn, work out at the gym on those days. She visits with her grandchildren every single day, and she now has the energy to cheer them on at ball games and recitals. She has plenty of energy to cook those great family meals—that she can now enjoy, too.
“I’m a busy woman, and thank God I can do everything,” she says. “I have been reborn, and I truly mean it. I’ve been reborn.”
Since finding out that her mother, Bridget, needed a kidney transplant, Jill repeatedly asked her to get information about becoming a living donor.
“But she was adamant about my not being tested,” Jill says, “until she met the transplant team at Geisinger. They made it possible for me to give her this gift.”
For several long years, Jill had to wait—sometimes impatiently—for her mother, Bridget, to accept her very special gift. Her mom needed a kidney transplant, and Jill wanted to be the donor.
“There was no doubt in my mind that this is what I wanted to do, and I went to bed every night thinking about it,” Jill says.
As Bridget’s kidney disease worsened over a six year period, the entire family witnessed her quality of life decline. For many of these years, the 66-year-old Wilkes-Barre native had to reserve up to 18 hours of every week for dialysis treatments. Her seven grandchildren, who range in age from 2 to 15 years old, came to accept that if their games, recitals or awards ceremonies were on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, that Grandma just couldn’t be there.
Jill is a mother of four of those grandchildren. She was also the only one of three siblings who might be able to save her mother’s life.
“This is my Mom. She gave me life, and this is the least that I could do for her,” Jill says.
Her family agreed.
“My family was 100 percent supportive,” she says. “My husband said that I shouldn’t even have to think about it. My kids said, ‘Obviously, you’re going to do it.’”
Encouragement and trust
Bridget did register with one transplant program and was placed on the long list for a kidney from a non-living donor. Though these transplants save thousand of lives every year, kidney transplants from living donors have greater rates of success.
For years, the family continued encouraging Bridget to accept Jill’s gift. Finally, Jill’s parents met with the transplant team at Geisinger, and they came away from that meeting with a high level of confidence and trust in the team. They also came away with the decision the family had been waiting for: Bridget would accept the kidney donation from her daughter.
“The very next day, I started making arrangements with Geisinger to do the testing,” Jill says. “My experience there was probably the best experience anybody could ever have. I felt like I had the best hands in the world taking care of me.”
Instantaneous change
The Geisinger transplant team performs dozens of kidney transplants a year, about half of them with living donors. So they bring an important depth of experience to people seeking this life-saving treatment. After the transplant and just as Jill had hoped, her mother has reaped huge benefits from her daughter’s gift.
“The surgery at Geisinger was a very temporary, miniscule event for me in the whole scheme of things. I’m no different now, except that I just have one less kidney,” she says with a smile.
Jill reports that the change in her mother was “total and almost instantaneous.”
“It’s so wonderful to see her back in action as the vibrant person she always had been,” Jill says. “Now she has more energy than I have!”
Family rewards
Today, both women’s generosity spills over into the lives of their entire, large family. Jill and her husband remain busy with their four active teenagers, and she continues her full-time career at Children’s Service Center in Wyoming Valley, working with children who have behavioral issues such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Bridget is back to doting over the grandchildren like she used to, and she’s ready to go whenever they have a ballgame or other event. Plus, she’s back to inviting everyone for big family dinners with homemade ravioli, meat balls, or pork roast, with everything to go with it.
The family, however, has had to adjust to the fact that Bridget just might not be at home when they drop in.
“More than once I’ve stopped by expecting her to be home, because she always was,” Jill says. “She’s out all the time, now.”
Rewards for a community
Jill describes how the trust that she and her mother have in the staff at Geisinger translates into appreciation on a larger scale.
“Not only were the people there wonderful to me, they made it possible for me to give my mom her life back,” she says. “I tell everyone that I think that Geisinger is one of the best hospitals in the country.”
Kidney transplant teams are based at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Geisinger Wyoming Valley, and Geisinger Scenery Park.
