Inspired by Family to Take Action
David Garey was 24 years old when he donated a kidney to an anonymous recipient through the paired kidney exchange program at University of Utah Health.
While Garey had been pondering donating a kidney for some time, it was his wife who inspired him to do it in the end.
When Garey’s mother-in-law needed a kidney transplant, his wife Cheyenne ended up being a match. She planned to donate her kidney to her mother. Watching this, Garey decided to start the testing process to see if he was eligible to donate.
“Without having something very real in my life bringing the idea of kidney donation to the forefront, it might have just stayed as a passing thought,” he said.
Garey and his wife were both tested for eligibility at another transplant center before coming to U of U Health to complete their testing.
Shalei Valentine, RN, is one of the living donor nurse coordinators at U of U Health. She helps potential donors through preliminary testing. She had the opportunity to work with both Garey and his wife throughout this process.
Valentine has been in her role for 10 years and loves being able to work with living donors.
“We have amazing donors at the University of Utah,” Valentine said. “Utah is such a giving state, and we see that through kidney donations. There are a lot of wonderful people who want to donate.”
While Valentine admires anyone who chooses to donate, Garey’s case is especially memorable.
“I think in this case it’s super special” she said. “When you’re so young, it’s rare to have this kind of passion in something so altruistic, and I think it just says a lot about him and his character and who he is as a person.”
When Garey’s wife got a donation date, Valentine asked if he wanted to hold off on donating until his wife was fully recovered. Garey didn’t want to wait. He donated a month after she did.
“He was just so set on donating,” Valentine said. “He wanted that kidney to go to somebody as soon as possible.”
Even heading into such a big surgery, Garey wasn’t worried.
“I guess there were some nerves, but for the most part I was very confident,” he said. “I felt very well taken care of by the entire team at the University of Utah, and whatever minor risks there were, it was still a worthwhile thing to do.”
Expanding Opportunities Through Paired Kidney Exchange
Michelle Buff, MD, performed both surgeries for Garey and his wife and got to know each of them throughout the process.
“It’s always just extra special when someone comes forward to give a kidney when they don’t have an intended recipient in mind,” Buff said.
In addition to being a transplant surgeon, Buff is the living donor kidney director at U of U Health. Last year, she and her fellow transplant colleagues performed 175 kidney transplant surgeries; 60 of those were living donor transplants.
“These folks like David who are willing to donate enable us to do a lot of transplants that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise,” she said.
Garey donated to an anonymous recipient through the paired kidney exchange program.
Paired kidney exchange helps match the most compatible donors and recipients for a living kidney donation. U of U Health is a member of the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation and the National Kidney Registry.
Being involved in these national programs expands the donation pool so that the care team can find the most compatible match for each recipient. A better match means that recipients have a lower risk of reacting to or rejecting a donor kidney. It also helps to decrease long-term infection and cancer risk as the recipient may benefit from lower doses of anti-rejection medications.
“The paired registry program is growing as we see the benefits,” Buff said. “Donor recipients are no longer limited to just donors that live in their area. Opening up the donor pool across the country means our recipients are getting better matched kidneys, and they last longer.”
While Garey doesn’t know anything about the recipient of his kidney, he does know the transplant surgery went well. Although he will never meet this person, he hopes they are doing as well as he is.
“I’m feeling really good,” he said. “I just had some minor issues after the surgery, but I’m feeling back to normal. I don’t feel any different than I did before the surgery.”
A Life-Changing Experience and a Message for Others
For Garey, the entire experience has been life-changing.
“I’m just seeing the way it affected my mother-in-law with her failing health and the way it has affected my wife,” he said. “I was very happy I could hopefully prevent a little bit of that heartache for another family out there.”
Garey is finishing an undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Weber State University. He currently works as a certified nursing assistant and plans to apply to medical school in the spring.
“Another cool thing about this experience is that it made me even more sure about what I want to do after I graduate,” he said. “I got to be on the other side of the patient experience and got some unique insights into being a patient myself.”
For anyone pondering organ donation, Garey has some simple words of advice: just do it.
“I think this is one of the most meaningful things I could have done with my life, at least at this point in my life,” he said. “Time is a sacred and very limited resource that we have. Being able to be a small part of giving someone a bit more time with their family and with their loved ones, I think that’s a gift that can’t be matched.”
