Michael Needs To Meet His Match

I began blogging about Michael Larsen, a 12-year-old boy suffering from end-stage renal disease, last December. At the time, I asked readers of Captain’s Quarters to consider the live-saving gift of a kidney to help save Michael’s life. A good friend of the family teaches Michael at a local middle school, and she tells us what a great kid Michael is. Now, readers can see for Michael for themselves from a local Fox station’s coverage of the story last night:

Ask friends and teachers about Michael Larsen. They’ll talk about the 12-year-old’s impossibly long eyelashes and nonstop chatter; they might not even mention the fact that Michael has no kidneys. The Saint Paul sixth-grader isn’t just a medical mystery, he’s an inspiring story. Fox 9’s Jamie Reese introduces us to the boy facing his struggle with a smile, and hoping someone, somewhere, can help give him a new lease on life, that he holds so precious. To help, please call: 612-672-7270.

It’s been a while since I blogged about Michael, but the need still exists. His single mother Leah has been far too overwhelmed to coordinate any new information, and understandably so. The TV coverage gives us an opportunity to update everyone on the story.
One very giving member of our community had himself tested, but unfortunately the tissue match failed. Michael needs a healthy donor with type B or O blood. If anyone in our community can fit that description and feels moved to help a great kid live a normal life, please call the University of Minnesota transplant center at 612-672-7270. With four transplants, the First Mate and I understand how powerful this gift of life can be for everyone involved.
In the meantime, please keep the Larsens and their dedicated caregivers in your thoughts and prayers.

Internet Not Just For Venting Spleens

Sally Satel’s first online relationship left a permanent scar — for which she gives profound thanks to God. In yesterday’s New York Times, Satel reveals how she found a donor that saved her from end-stage renal disease, and likely a slow death from dialysis while waiting the enormously long time it takes to get a cadaver donor. Satel wonders why we don’t have a better system for encouraging live donors (via King at SCSU Scholars):

My story, it turns out, is a triumph of altruism. Looking back, I see that my anxiety over my future donor was a neurotic luxury. I worried about finding the ideal donor, but thousands of people have no donor at all — no relative who will do it out of love or obligation, no friend out of kindness, no stranger out of humane impulse. Alas, I have no kidney to give away. Instead, I am urging wherever I can — in articles, in lectures, from assorted rooftops — that society has a moral imperative to expand the idea of “the gift.”
Altruism is a beautiful virtue, but it has fallen painfully short of its goal. We must be bold and experiment with offering prospective donors other incentives for giving, not necessarily payment but material reward of some kind — perhaps something as simple as offering donors lifelong Medicare coverage. Or maybe Congress should grant waivers so that states can implement their own creative ways of giving something to donors: tax credits, tuition vouchers or a contribution to a giver’s retirement account.
In short, we should reward individuals who relinquish an organ to save a life because doing so would encourage others to do the same. Yes, splendid people like Virginia will always be moved to rescue in the face of suffering, and I did get my kidney. But unless we stop thinking of transplantable kidneys solely as gifts, we will never have enough of them.

Anyone who has gone through Satel’s process understands the roller coaster ride she describes. We did not have the trouble Satel had with potential donors who backed away without notice or explanation. Both of our donors remained highly committed to the process, as did their families — a quality that may have been lacking with Satel’s. In fact, I cannot imagine our situation without that strength of support from their families, strength that allowed us to accept these gifts with the grace we could muster.
At the time of the First Mate’s first transplant, the wait time in California was much shorter, around six months to a year for a cadaver transplant. We expected to start dialysis within days while I continued my tests for being her live donor; in fact, they installed a dialysis shunt in case it would still be necessary at the same time as the transplant. One year on dialysis would have been hard enough on some patients, but five years would be a death sentence for a significant portion of ESRD sufferers. For many, the process has no ill effects, but for some it is nothing more than a slow death.
Should we give material benefits for live-organ donations? It could help boost the market and therefore save lives, but I’m not as sure of that as Satel is. The situations in which donors slipped away do not sound as though a material reward would have salvaged the donation. In one case, the donor got chased away by a transplant surgeon unaffiliated with Satel’s case, and the other two gave no reasons for their change of heart.
The suggestion carries some ethical issues of access based on the ability to provide compensation. Satel suggests free Medicare health coverage for a lifetime for those who donate, but that appears to be the direction we all will travel, given the current political environment. Tax breaks for life might also help, but again, if the tax code goes through a major renovation, that will likely disappear. Besides, the demand for free-market compensation delivered by the government sets up a strange dichotomy.
This is no academic matter, however. The need for kidneys is overwhelming, and the pace of donations simply has not met the demand — and people like Michael Larson will suffer the consequences. Virginia Postrel donated a kidney to Sally Satel, and CapQ reader Paul has begun that process for Michael. In truth, we need many more people to make that decision to give of themselves so that others may live. Would money be the deciding factor in that decision? I suspect not, but I’m open to suggestions that doesn’t exploit financial desperation or create a market where the wealthy take precedence over recipients like Michael.
Michael has entered the Fairview University Transplant Program, the same facility that has provided the FM with three life-saving transplants. Anyone wishing to give of themselves to help Michael can call 800-328-5465 to speak to the living donor coordinator. Later, I’ll describe that process for readers as well. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and I hope you will offer your prayers and thoughts for Michael and Leah.

Michael Larson Update

Last Friday, I introduced readers to Michael Larson and his mother, Leah. Michael, in the words of his teachers, is “a great kid” with a serious problem — end-stage renal disease. Michael had to have his kidney removed and is now on dialysis at an age where boys usually spend their days playing baseball, or at this time of year, sledding and playing hockey. Instead, Michael and his mom have to worry about whether Michael can stay healthy enough for the average five-year wait for a cadaver donor.
Given the extraordinary gift that my wife received twice of live-donor kidneys from our friends, I wanted to pay that forward in some small way by helping Michael find his own live donor. My first post prompted an excellent essay from CapQ reader Amy Kissling, who shared her personal story of organ donation for her friend. That prompted another reader, Paul, to write that he felt called to help Michael. After prayers and discussion with his family, Paul contacted the transplant team to start testing for a possible donation.
Paul will have to undergo a thorough regimen of physical examinations in order to determine whether he can donate his kidney to Michael. His tissue has to provoke no strong reactions in Michael, for example, and Paul has to be healthy enough to give up a kidney. By the time Paul finishes his exams, he will know everything there is to know about his health, a great side benefit of the process. If he checks out, the transplant team will schedule the surgery. If for some reason Paul cannot be the donor, we will have to start again with someone new.
I will continue to follow Michael’s story, as well as Paul’s. People like Paul, Leah, Michael, and our own blessed donors (living and deceased) remind me that while the world can be a dark and dangerous place, it also holds blessings and goodness when we look hard enough for them. This time of year seems especially suited for that lesson.
Michael has entered the Fairview University Transplant Program, the same facility that has provided the FM with three life-saving transplants. Anyone wishing to give of themselves to help Michael can call 800-328-5465 to speak to the living donor coordinator. Later, I’ll describe that process for readers as well. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and I hope you will offer your prayers and thoughts for Michael and Leah.

Kidney Donation: A Personal Story

On Friday, I wrote about Michael Larson, a twelve-year-old boy who needs a kidney transplant to survive. His mother Leah has allowed me to tell Michael’s story in hopes that we can find a living donor with type B or type O blood to give the gift of life to Michael. I intend to write every few days on Michael and transplants, but after Friday’s post, I received an e-mail from Amy Kissling, a CapQ reader and a living donor herself, asking if she could tell her story.
I have written this because you might be donating a kidney to a loved one. I have no medical experience but having done this myself, I can share with you what the experience was like for me. Not on a personal or spiritual level, but just what you can expect to happen to you, your body and your kidney. What follows are 2000 words giving you all the details. But before we get into that, let me just say that donating a kidney has to be the absolute easiest way to save someone’s life. I think if more people knew how shamelessly easy it is, the waiting list would be waiting for someone to be on it. Really. It’s THAT easy.
I don’t know where you are in the process…maybe you need a bit more info before making any kind of decision or maybe you’ve already had the blood test that determined you are a match to someone in need and you are wondering what comes next. What matters is that you are reading this, so you’ve already thought about trying to help. Which is a good thing, because although cadaver kidneys are good and have offered many suffering people years of good life quality, live donations have a better success rate. So someone may have a much better chance at an improved life because of you. (I certainly don’t mean to diminish the gift of cadaver kidneys in any way. I think giving away a part of your loved one at a time when you just really want them back is about the most generous and beautiful thing anyone could EVER do.)
So, okay, here’s what happened to me. ….
Please read the rest of Amy’s story here. She goes into detail about how the experience affected her, and I don’t want to edit Amy one jot.
Michael has entered the Fairview University Transplant Program, the same facility that has provided the FM with three life-saving transplants. Anyone wishing to give of themselves to help Michael can call 800-328-5465 to speak to the living donor coordinator. Later, I’ll describe that process for readers as well. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and I hope you will offer your prayers and thoughts for Michael and Leah.

Meet Michael Larson

Many readers at Captain’s Quarters lived through the multiple transplants that the First Mate had over the last three years. Literally, this blog began because she went into the hospital for a week with kidney failure in October 2003, and I needed something to take my mind off of the pressures of her illness. CapQ readers have supported us in prayers, good thoughts, and celebration when she successfully underwent a pancreas transplant and two kidney transplants, the latest of which came on March 30th of this year.
Both kidney transplants came as tremendous gifts from friends we knew in Marriage Encounter. Rarely does anyone have a friend willing to put his or her life and health on the line to save one’s own — and it’s beyond remarkable to have that happen twice in three years. The FM would not be here today without them, as she never could have survived the estimated five-year wait for a cadaver donor. When that happens, you know that you have to look for the opportunity to pay it forward in some way, some time. And fortunately, the opportunity has presented itself.
A member of our extended Minnesota family teaches at a local middle school, and she told me about Michael Larson. Twelve-year-old Michael has lost his kidney function, and has had to have one kidney completely removed. He relies on dialysis to survive until he can find a donor. Michael’s mother is a single mom with all of the normal stress of getting by, on top of which she has had thrusted on her all of the issues that come with end-stage renal disease. “He’s a great kid,” his teacher tells me, and his mom Leah agrees.
Over the next few weeks, Captain’s Quarters and Heading Right Radio will follow Michael’s case in addition to the normal political analysis I provide. I’ll interview Michael and Leah, post his picture, and let CapQ readers come to know the Larsons. I’m hoping we can find someone in good health with either type B or type O blood who feels moved to save a great twelve-year-old boy. Leah has allowed me to tell his story and to update readers on his progress, and we’ll stay on it until Michael gets his kidney transplant, one way or the other.
Michael has entered the Fairview University Transplant Program, the same facility that has provided the FM with three life-saving transplants. Anyone wishing to give of themselves to help Michael can call 800-328-5465 to speak to the living donor coordinator. Later, I’ll describe that process for readers as well. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and I hope you will offer your prayers and thoughts for Michael and Leah.