Posted on June 12, 2002 at 2:06 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — A father and his daughter both received kidney transplants at UAB this week from the same donor. It’s a situation the Alabama Organ Center called “a first for us and extremely rare anywhere in the world.”
“We called Yvonne Humphrey about 1:30 a.m. Sunday at a number in Madison County to tell her to come to UAB for her transplant, then hung up the phone to call the Richard Cole, the next person on the list who matched the donor’s tissue — and it was the same phone number,” said Dem Lalisan of the organ center.
Cole, 61, and Humphrey, 31, rode together to UAB Hospital for their surgeries along with her daughters Jenny, 8, and Katie, 9, and her other parent, Vera Cole. All live together in the New Market community. The patients are listed in satisfactory condition this morning, with both of the new kidneys working.
The donor was a young woman who died in a motor vehicle wreck. Her liver was also transplanted at UAB.
Yvonne Humphrey, 31, and her father Richard Cole, 61, have spent a lot of time together in recent years. When she developed kidney failure after pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, she shared her fate with her father, whose own kidneys failed in 1995 for unknown reasons. They were “dialysis buddies,” riding together to the kidney dialysis center in Huntsville three times a week and sitting next to each other for the four-hour treatments.
Vera Cole said, “It was upsetting when Yvonne also lost her kidney function, but she was so positive and strong about getting on with her life that she was a wonderful influence on Richard. That, and knowing he had a couple of grandkids to live for, helped him decide to try for a transplant, too.”
The family acknowledged the sorrow of the donor family. “We are so grateful to the young woman, and especially her family, who made such a generous decision in their time of trauma and loss,” they said in a statement.
There are more than 1,700 people on the waiting list for a kidney at the Alabama Organ Center. About 110 people in the state donate a family member’s organs each year. Chuck Patrick, director of the organ center, said, “It’s easier than ever to indicate your wish to be an organ and tissue donor when you die, by making the appropriate indication on your driver’s license. Even so, it’s vitally important to discuss this wish with your family members, who will be the ones to give final consent.” To contact the Alabama Organ Center, call 1-800-252-3677.
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