Kenneth Hubbard, of Star, became the catalyst for a historic six-person kidney transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital April 5 when he decided to donate his kidney to a perfect stranger. On April 23, President George W. Bush met in the Oval Office with Hubbard and five other donors, along with the recipients and members of the nine medical teams recognizing them for their selfless acts of giving.
“These people are all first-hand witnesses to the fight of life – or in this case lives,” Bush said in a press release concerning the event.
There were already five people waiting for kidney transplants and a majority of them had donors who were not compatible. Hubbard is hailed as the cornerstone that set off the event in domino fashion, resulting in a marathon transplant surgery involving 12 people: six donors and six recipients.
One of the recipients was Jeanne Heise, wife to the brother of President George Bush’s White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton. Randy Bolton was prepared to give his wife his kidney, but was incompatible. His kidney went to another donor and the domino effect continued. And it all began with Hubbard.
Webster’s Dictionary defines compassion as, “sorrow for the sufferings or trouble of another…accompanied by an urge to help.” That’s what Hubbard felt in 2006 while he was watching a television program about a man that had donated his kidney to a woman he didn’t know through an Internet site that matches donors and recipients.
“I thought, why can’t I do what this man did,” Hubbard says. “He gave that woman her life back.” Hubbard immediately registered at matchingdonors.com, but the process was a bit harder than he thought it would be.
“A lot of hospitals frown on altruistic donors,” he said. That’s the process whereby a donor, like Hubbard, agrees to give his or her kidney to someone they don’t know or aren’t related to. Many hospitals, he adds, view it at most as unethical or at the very least, controversial. But doctors do prefer live organ donations, since the success rate is much higher.
The first several hospitals he approached turned him down flat, but then Hubbard heard of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. He approached them in April 2007, “and they jumped at it,” he said. He filled out all the information and the process started.
After familiarizing himself with the procedures, Hubbard started the plethora of medical tests. First there was the complete medical history, including records for the past five years that had to be sent to the hospital. Then there were the physicals, a colonoscopy, complete blood work ups and a body mass index evaluation.
Hospitals will only accept donors that are in perfect health, so they won’t face any undue risks during the transplant. Hubbard heard about other inevitable risks associated with surgery, but wasn’t concerned. “I wasn’t scared,” he says. “I’m a man of faith and I knew I’d be taken care of.”
Hubbard’s only problem was that he had to lose 15 pounds, something he was happy to do. After that, there were complete CT scans and even a psychological evaluation. Then doctors made doubly sure Hubbard knew what he was getting into, but he already knew and it didn’t faze him in the least.
“I’m a humanitarian,” he says. “I believe in helping people any way I can. Faith without works is dead.” Hubbard adds that he chose this path because it’s what God told him to do. He adds that he’s telling his story not to bring glory to himself, but to let others know about the tremendous need for kidneys and about the number of people that suffer every day while waiting for a new beginning.
“If everyone was to take an aggressive stance towards other people’s needs, a lot of people who are day by day living intolerable lives could be treated and saved. It’s so easy to give a kidney. It just takes time and patience and love towards your fellow man.”
It wasn’t so easy to coordinate the actual surgery. After four false start dates, it was scheduled for April 5, 2008. The transplant coordinator had chosen a match for Hubbard in November and Sherry Finkbeiner was about to get a new kidney. Finkbeiner had been especially hard to match, and since Hubbard has O positive blood, it was a miracle that he came along.
After the surgeries were over and everyone had recovered, recipients and donors met for the first time. “There were tears everywhere for both of us,” Hubbard said about meeting Finkbeiner. He talks about her saying thank you and feeling that that was not sufficient enough. “There’s nothing you can say,” he told her. “Just spend time with your family.”
If you are interested in learning more about altruistic organ donation, visit www.matchingdonors.com or www.unos.com (The United Network for Organ Sharing).
