The gift that multiplies: Kidney Paired Donor Exchange Program
Barney and Mona Welch from Odessa, Texas, who have been married for nearly 43 years, wanted to make sure they had many more years with each other and with their family. However, Mona Welch needed a kidney transplant to make sure that was possible.
Mona’s husband Barney Welch had no doubt he wanted to donate his kidney, but he was not a match for his wife. Still, they were able to make it happen in an incredibly short amount of time due to the Kidney Paired Donor Exchange Program at Methodist Hospital | Specialty and Transplant.
“Mona was a complicated patient because she has a 99 percent antibody level, which means she would only be a match to one percent of the population. She would have waited a long time for a donor on the waiting list,” said Dr. Adam Bingaman, the director of abdominal transplant at Methodist Hospital | Specialty and Transplant. “Because she had a willing donor, we were able to match them with others in our database.”
Methodist Hospital | Specialty and Transplant has a large, in–house database designed to match donor/recipient pairs managed by a dedicated team of immunologists, physicians and transplant coordinators.
“She could have waited six to eight years for a deceased donor kidney transplant,” said Barney. “Thanks to the exchange program, I was able to donate and help someone else. There were three pairs of us. It is the gift that multiplies. It was an amazing experience.”
Mona’s nephrologist Mamoun Bashir, MD, in Midland, Texas, told her in April that she would need to start dialysis if she did not get a transplant soon. She was referred to physicians in San Antonio for a consultation at Methodist Hospital | Specialty and Transplant.
“My second appointment, they had a match. I was floored,” said Mona. “The surgery was scheduled for June 10, and everything fell into place.”
Barney and Mona said the care they received before, during and after the transplant was incredible. They felt the staff, physicians, social workers, nurses and transplant coordinators were wonderful and truly cared about the work they were doing.
Dr. Bingaman said it takes a lot of close coordination with the transplant teams and through the partnerships with nephrologists across the state. Specialty and Transplant is the largest living donor transplant program in the nation. The program also made medical history by performing the world’s largest kidney donor exchange in a single center. For Mona and Barney, it meant less time on a waiting list and more time together.
“We’ll continue taking care of ourselves and loving each other,” said Barney, holding his wife’s hand. “This adds so many years. It was a miracle from God.”
Click here to learn more about the Kidney Paired Donor Exchange Program.