70-year-old Donates Kidney to Save Her Marine Veteran Brother
It’s just after midnight in early July and Kenneth Walker, a 68-year-old from Oakland, Tenn., was asleep when his phone started ringing, rousing him and his wife, Janice, awake.
He looked down at the caller information on the screen of his phone and saw it was from the Methodist Transplant Institute (MTI). The voice on the other line was a transplant coordinator telling Kenneth they had just received a kidney and needed him to arrive at 2:30 a.m. to prepare for surgery.
Receiving life-changing news and having to act so quickly on it might elicit a range of emotions for some—joy, relief, nervousness or even a slight panic. For months, Kenneth had been on dialysis while patiently waiting for that phone call alerting him that a compatible kidney had been acquired for transplantation.
For Kenneth, his nine years of service in the Marines as a helicopter crew chief and 31 years with the United States Postal Service had prepared him for high-stress and rapidly evolving situations.
But the scenario Kenneth found himself in just a few hours after receiving the news of a compatible kidney being found, is one that even he found incredibly difficult to process.
Kenneth and his wife raced over to Methodist University Hospital hours before sunrise and started preparations for surgery. But upon inspection of the kidney after it arrived at MTI, the surgeon made the decision that the kidney could not be transplanted.
When Kenneth received that call to prepare for surgery, he initially didn’t want to tell anyone except for his wife. But the Walkers are a tight-knit family with three children and five grandchildren, so word quickly got around to them that a kidney was acquired, but ultimately not transplantable.
When news got to Kenneth’s sister Beatrice Garrett, a 70-year-old former Internal Revenue Service employee and Shelby County Division of Corrections worker, she decided it was time for her to make good on a promise she made long ago.
“My mom gave me strict instructions before she passed about what I was supposed to do as the oldest. And number one was to make sure I took care of what she called "her babies," because we were always "babies" no matter how old we got,” Beatrice said.
Beatrice may be retired from the daily rigors of a 9-5 job but is fully entrenched in caring for her grandchildren and helping her family wherever she can. In what little spare time she had, Beatrice would research.
How do you get a kidney transplant?
How long does dialysis take?
What do you need to do to donate a kidney?
Do you ever stop dialysis treatments?
These are all things she was trying to educate herself about. She had some prior knowledge of the transplant process from when she attempted to donate a kidney to her niece around 15 years ago. But she found out her blood pressure and cholesterol were too high at the time to be considered as a donor.
Part of her research this time around, which started almost a year before when her brother found out his kidneys were failing, led to an appointment with the living donor program. That meeting proved to be the last bit of information and confirmation she needed to be able to move forward with a potential life-saving donation for her brother.
Beatrice tested to see if she was eligible to donate. She was nervous that her blood pressure or cholesterol might be an issue again but was determined to see it through to find out if it was even possible to help her brother.
“Now, here's the amazing part,” Beatrice said. “My blood pressure (in a year) went from being just controlled to being better than it has ever been. My cholesterol dropped almost a hundred points. It's always been almost 300, even with medication. It's now where it's supposed to be, less than 200,” she said.
“I attribute it to God preparing me to do what I needed to do,” Beatrice said.
If divine intervention wasn’t enough, the final sign she received was when she heard the news about the donated kidney not being transplantable for her brother.
“Everybody was happy. Then it didn't happen. And I was like, I can't do this anymore. I knew they were feeling let down, but I was like, I can't do it.” Beatrice said when recalling the moment she decided to tell the living donor coordinator she was ready to make the kidney donation for her brother.
There would be no more rollercoaster of emotions for her family if she had anything to say about it. So, after a few weeks of presurgical clearance, Beatrice was ready to make good on her promise to take care of her family yet again.
Beatrice arrived at MTI early in the morning for preop to begin her nephrectomy. Not far behind, her brother arrived and waited patiently for the final word that he could move forward and receive his sister’s kidney. Once Beatrice’s surgery was found to be progressing well and her kidney was indeed determined to be transplantable, Kenneth was taken to surgery to accept his sister’s life-changing gift.
An incredible orchestration and collaboration from surgeons, nephrologists, anesthesiologists, nurses, MAs and organ coordinators culminated in a successful kidney transplantation from a loving 70-year-old woman to her 68-year-old brother.
The power of love and generosity can lead people to do extraordinary things.
Thanks to such an extraordinary gesture and an incredible care team, Kenneth now has his sister’s left kidney helping filter waste, toxins and other materials from his body to help keep him healthy and full of life.
The days of Kenneth sitting in a chair for dialysis treatment from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are now over. He can now get back to living the life he envisioned when he retired just 1.5 years ago.
“I wanted to retire so I could spend time going to my grandkids' basketball games and my young nephews' baseball games, and just enjoying them,” Kenneth said proudly.
Being on dialysis, he couldn’t be away from treatment for more than two days at a time.
“I couldn't go more than two days. You know, those kind of things aren't living. They hinder you in life,” he said underscoring his gratitude for MTI being an option in helping him to take back control of his life.
Kenneth and Beatrice were both particularly impressed and blown away by the quality of care they received throughout this journey. They both mentioned how everyone they saw operated like a sports team.
“I mean, the only thing I didn't see 'em do was high fiving,” Kenneth said with a chuckle.
“I was managing for the Postal Service at a high level, and I would have hired every one of them to work for me, because that's what I required. I just required quality people with a quality spirit, doers and fixers and carers. And that's what I got here,” Kenneth said proudly.
Speaking of her experience, Beatrice said matter-of-factly, “I would have done it again, except I only got one kidney left, so I can't do it.” She added that she hasn’t missed a beat at home helping look after her family.
As for Kenneth, he’s planning on using the gift he received from his sister to keep on living and making memories with his grandkids and wife.
“My youngest granddaughter is 14. I got two of them that's 14. One lives in New Jersey, one lives in Lakeland. And they're growing, and I want to see them grow up. I want to be able to go to their games, spend all my money on them, teach them how to drive... you know, those kind of things,” Kenneth said.
“I enjoy watching them watch me when they see me in the stands. And that's important to them, because it was important to me when I was coming up,” he said.
In addition to spending time and being present with his grandchildren, Kenneth is planning to take his wife to Hawaii next year.
“She’s really been a rock. She’s always been a rock,” Kenneth said.
After weeks and months of uncertainty, and because of one sister’s promise to her mother, this family can now be whole again.
To make an appointment or to learn more about the Methodist Transplant Institute, please call 901-478-9183.
To learn more about being an organ donor and how you could save a life, please visit https://www.methodisthealth.org/DonateLife.
Methodist Transplant Institute
1265 Union Avenue, 4 Shorb
Memphis, TN 38104
