Nurse, Patient Kidney Transplant A Success
By Kyle Midura | KURL NBC 8
BILLINGS - A Billings Clinic nurse has given the gift of life to one of her patients.
In August we told you about a nurse who was giving her kidney to one of her patients. At the time, she wanted to remain anonymous. But now, with the surgery completed, both donor and recipient are speaking out about the selfless gift.
"I spent a long time thinking about what it would be like and what I anticipated it being like isn't even close," said Roger Gravgaard of his new kidney. "It's great to have my dad back again," said his daughter Aby.
"Knowing how much I've changed his life, and his daughter's, has really affected me," said kidney donor and registered nurse Vickie Lindt.
Lindt turned on the television one day and watched a program on organ donations. She had met Roger Gravgaard and his family years earlier, but that day a new thought came to her mind.
"When I heard she was going to donate her kidney I dropped the phone and balled my eyes out," said Aby Gravgaard. "It proved to me that there are angels walking on the earth," Roger said.
"My first question was 'why me?'" he said, "and her response was 'why not you.'"
Lindt made her thoughts a bit clearer this week. "I just felt he'd take care of himself, and he was deserving," she said. She added that she was impressed with the attention and love Roger gave to his fellow dialysis patients whom he sat with three times a week. She also knew of the additional stress he carried following his wife Mia's diagnosis with breast cancer.
"She was always my rock," said Aby of her mother, "and when that happened, I felt like my rock was crumbling."
"It never really occurred to me that I was putting my life on the line," said Lindt, "it was just because it was the thing to do."
It took months to get everything in order, but in August Vickie and Roger went in for surgery, as Aby prepared for school. "It was hard to go to through the first couple days," she said, "because every 10 minutes you're thinking what if something went wrong."
Nothing did, and both donor and recipient are healthy. They say their lives will never be the same following one incredibly selfless act that's bonded these two together forever.
Roger said his wife Mia is doing well with her cancer treatments. He said they're looking forward to 2011, when they hope to lead a 'normal life.'
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