How One Kidney Became Four — And Counting
- Jeanne and Keenan Cheung
- Photo/Roger Snider
The story of Keenan Cheung and his new kidney is an unusual one.
It began ordinarily enough. When Cheung, director of housing services at USC, began losing function of his kidneys, he was placed on dialysis. Because his wife, Jeanne, has an incompatible blood type and was unable to give him one of hers, he began the long wait for a donor.
Cheung then did what hundreds of thousands of people in need of a kidney (or other organs) have done: He turned to the universal donor system, which gave him an estimated seven to 10 years before an organ would be available through a deceased donor. (More than 100,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, and 16,000 on this list live in California. But only 10,550 kidney transplants from deceased donors were performed in 2008, according to the network.)
The Cheungs also signed up with the UCLA Kidney Exchange program. Through this program, “donor chains” are created, matching people who are unable to receive a kidney from a willing friend or family member with others in a similar situation.
There are multiple benefits of participating in this program. Recipients often receive a kidney sooner than they would through the universal donor list. In addition, they receive a kidney from a living donor, which on average lasts longer than a kidney from a deceased donor.
As of June, Cheung, the father of three young boys, had been on dialysis for three and a half years, the first three of which were relatively uneventful. “There was no impact on my life, other than that I had to do it,” he said.
But at the end of last year, Cheung’s health took a downward turn. His dialysis method had become ineffective, and his levels of creatinine, a chemical waste that is filtered out by the kidneys, was up to 24 milligrams - stunning when one considers that an adult male with a healthy set of kidneys has creatinine levels between 0.6 to 1.2 milligrams.
Cheung was preparing to switch to a different type of dialysis in May. But then he got a phone call from UCLA that would put his dialysis days in the past: A compatible kidney donor had been located. And with that, Cheung found himself in the middle of a rare and amazing kidney transplant chain.
Cheung and at least three others, so far, owe their newfound health to a firefighter in Michigan named Harry Damon.
Damon wanted to honor the memory of his son who died in a snowmobile accident at the age of 24, so he contacted UCLA to see about becoming an altruistic donor. As it turned out, he was a match for Sheila Whitney of Compton, whose son, Reginal Griffin, wanted to donate to her, but was prevented from doing so because of incompatible blood.
Once Whitney received Damon’s kidney, the chain was set in motion. Griffin then donated a kidney to Cheung, the next compatible person on UCLA’s donor list. In turn, Jeanne Cheung gave one of her kidneys to a teacher in Commerce, who had been on dialysis for six years. Her friend then donated one of her kidneys, taking the chain up the coast to San Francisco, where it will hopefully continue.
The chain did more than free Cheung and the others from a life on dialysis: With each person who received a kidney through this chain, someone else awaiting a donor moved up a spot on the universal donor list, putting them that much closer to receiving a transplant.
Today, Cheung feels better than ever. Four hours after he entered the operating room on June 8, he had a new, functioning kidney that began working immediately. After two months of being unable to expel any body waste, Cheung produced 18 liters of urine as soon as the kidney was attached.
Cheung’s recovery so far has been rapid. He was sent home from the hospital only four days after the surgery. His energy has increased, color has returned to his face, and he has slimmed down after losing nearly 14 pounds of toxins that had been trapped in his body. And in less than a week, his creatinine levels fell to 1.7 - a level he had not been at for nearly two decades.
“I feel absolutely unbelievable,” Cheung said. “I truly feel like a new person.”
Two days after his surgery, Cheung was able to meet both his kidney donor and Damon, the man who started it all.
“Emotionally, you feel like you’ve known this person your whole life,” Cheung said.
Cheung plans to keep in touch with Damon and Griffin, and a one-year reunion of all those involved in the chain is already in the works.
“This whole experience has been completely overwhelming emotionally,” Cheung said. “There’s no other word for it.
“But the true story is about all the donors,” Cheung insisted. “Without a wife who loves me so much, and without Harry, this never would have happened.”
To learn more about the UCLA Kidney Exchange program, or to become an altruistic donor, visithttp://transplants.ucla.edu
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