Mar. 26--Susie Woodworth saved two lives with one kidney.
Here's how.
Lucy McKinney, of Midlothian, had known for decades she had polycystic kidney disease when she became gravely ill two years ago. It's a hereditary condition. She just didn't know how bad it would get.
"It started out like I had the flu, and the flu never went away," McKinney, 55, said. "I started losing a lot of weight very quickly and I was always tired."
By early 2006, her doctor informed her that she needed a new kidney. Even if approved for the transplant, the wait could be up to six years, she was told.
After months of intensive testing to be placed on the transplant list, McKinney's boss at Wachovia Insurance Services in Richmond, Scott Flora, offered his employee a trip to Florida to relax and put things in perspective.
It was there McKinney saw Woodworth, 50, a Powhatan County resident and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield employee with whom McKinney had served on a committee six years before.
As the two reunited, Woodworth noticed that McKinney's health had seriously deteriorated and finally brought up the matter at a layover on the way home.
"I was bold enough to ask," Woodworth recalled. "I said, 'Lucy, you just don't look like yourself. What's going on?'"
After McKinney explained her condition and need for a transplant, Woodworth immediately offered to begin testing to donate her kidney.
"To me, it was a pretty simple decision," Woodworth said. "Our meeting wasn't an accident. I don't believe in accidents. I felt like if I didn't do this I wouldn't be able to sleep again."
McKinney was approved for the transplant list in June 2006, and after six weeks of testing, her friend was approved to donate.
There was one problem; their blood types didn't match. But there was a solution.
Through a program at Henrico Doctor's Hospital, where McKinney was a patient, if Woodworth donated a kidney to another person, McKinney could be moved to the top of the recipient list. Woodworth signed up and was scheduled for surgery in November.
But McKinney began having complications with her liver and fell seriously ill in October. She was removed from the transplant list. At that point, she was emaciated and bruises covered her body. She weighed 83 pounds. She was dying.
After a time in intensive care, McKinney was transferred to VCU Medical Center. There, with treatment by kidney specialists, her health began to improve. She was returned to the transplant list in April 2007.
On July 10 Woodworth donated her kidney. And just weeks later, on Aug. 28, McKinney received her new kidney from a healthy 20-year-old donor at VCU's Hume-Lee Transplant Center.
"I woke up from the surgery and I felt perfectly fine," she said. "I felt like me again."
She wasn't the only one.
Woodworth said last week that she'd been informed her kidney had gone to a 35-year-old father of two and he was doing fine, too.
Earlier this month -- National Kidney Month -- McKinney returned to work at Wachovia. She will never forget the transplant experience or Woodworth's generosity, McKinney said.
"The whole thing has just been unbelievable. I'm so lucky in so many ways."
Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or whester@timesdispatch.com.
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