'Other half' takes on new meaning as wife gives husband a kidney

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By ERIKA BAYER-POLAK

VIEW STAFF WRITER

Jessica Gaylor gave her husband, Gary, a rather significant wedding present -- her kidney.

"It adds a whole other meaning to saying he's my other half," she said with a laugh.

Gary found out he had a kidney disease about 3 1/2 years ago, and managed not to undergo dialysis. But he and his wife expected the time would come when he would need a new kidney, and it did shortly after their wedding.

Luckily Jessica and Gary share the same blood type, which is O positive.

"When I found out he needed a kidney, there was no doubt in my mind that it would be me that would give it to him," she said. "And it's harder for O positive people because they need an organ from another O positive person, not like A or Bs."

So on May 31, Jessica gave one of her kidneys to Gary, who is now said to be doing well, as is his wife.

"I was still sore, but I was walking in two weeks, and in six weeks I was back to exercising," said Jessica, who is now training for a marathon. "I just have three small, tiny incisions on my side and maybe a 2-inch scar below my bellybutton. But they could have sliced me in half and I still would have done it."

Jessica, who is a personal trainer and teaches drama to children, is now getting involved with raising awareness of the importance of organ donations, especially living organ donations -- transplanting an organ from a living person rather than one who is dead.

Living organ donations can be performed on kidneys, a lobe of a lung, portions of the liver, pancreas and intestine. The most common type of a living organ donation is the kidney.

"Education is so important," Jessica said. "There are a lot of misconceptions. One of the biggest is that it is expensive to donate your kidney to someone. But it is at no cost to you, and if you need medication afterwards, they offer you Medicare."

Many misconceptions keep people from making living donations, according to officials at University Medical Center.

People also think that if they donate a kidney that they are jeopardizing their health, said Fina Wardle, director of medical and surgical transplant services at UMC.

However, the only real risk involved is the risk of the surgery, which accompanies all surgeries, Wardle said.

"You won't be sick with just one kidney. You can go on to lead a very full life," Wardle said. "And you can donate a kidney even if you don't know someone who needs one. You can give it to someone you don't know."

You also do not have to be related to the person you wish to give a kidney to, said Nancy Garay, financial coordinator of transplant services at UMC.

"A lot of people think you have to be related," said Garay. "The medicines are so strong now that you don't have to be a perfect match."

Wardle, Garay, Monina Campbell and Lisa Batton, clinical coordinators of transplant services at UMC, noted a few other reasons why people do not like the idea of donating organs. A few include: religious beliefs that bodies should remain in tact, with all organs, throughout one's life; and that the organ recipient may pick up feminine or masculine tendencies if the donor is of the opposite sex.

"And some parents think that if they give their spouse or sibling one of their kidneys, that they're cheating their kids out of the organ if they end up needing it," Batton said. "But really, chances are the parent would be too old to donate to their kid if the time came."

The standard age range that hospitals prefer for living kidney donors is between 8 and 50, according to UMC officials. As of press time their were 210 people waiting for a kidney in the state of Nevada.

"To know that by giving a small part of yourself, you can give someone life is amazing," Jessica Gaylor said. "I never saw myself as a hero, I just did what I would hope most people would do in the same situation."

More information on kidney donations can be found on the National Kidney Foundation's Web site at www.kidney.org, and on the United Network for Organ Sharing's Web site at www.unos.org.