Woman's long wait for kidney is over

Kim Walterscheid was 12 when she was diagnosed with a kidney disease that has killed six members of her family.

The hereditary disease damages the kidneys' ability to filter the body's waste.

"My father, grandfather, my oldest sister, a cousin, a niece and a nephew have died from what I have," said Walter- scheid, who is now 61. "I managed to make it until I was 57 without any problems."

It was a long, slow decline, her husband, Frank Walterscheid, 63, said. It wasn't until March 2008 that Kim had to go on dialysis. "That's when our journey began," Kim said. Both are retired, which meant he could be there for her every step of the way, and there were many steps.

That journey will come to an end Monday when Kim has a kidney transplant at UC Davis Medical Center.

The kidneys' filter system cleans the body's blood. Without that process, the body would fill with extra water and waste. The body needs clean blood to function properly. Absent that, a person could live for a while, but might develop other illnesses that could lead to death.

Monday is the day Kim has been waiting for even before she went on dialysis. Finding a donor for her wasn't easy. She's a difficult match because she has a high level of panel reactive antibodies in the blood. A person's PRA can range from 0 percent to 99 percent. Kim's PRA is at 95 percent. When a person has a high PRA, the blood will have antibodies that will react with a large portion of the population. As a result, a large portion of the population will not be able to donate a kidney.

The match must be precise for a transplant to succeed.

Kim's been on the cadaver donor waiting list for four years.

Frank said the average waiting time on that list is four to five years. "She was working her way up (the list) slowly," he added.

In April, the couple got a call that helped make Kim's transplant possible -- and her kidney won't come from a dead person, but from a live one.

The call was to inform the couple of the pair donor concept. Frank said that as a pair donor, he has to donate one of his kidneys to someone. In return, someone else will donate a compatible kidney to Kim.

Kim's transplant is going to be part of a chain of 26 people across the United States.

"There are going to be 13 people operated (on) in the morning who are going to be donating kidneys. Then those 13 kidneys are going to zigzag all around the country for (13) recipients to receive them in the afternoon," Frank said.

Frank is donating a kidney to a 67-year-old man in San Diego. Kim will receive a kidney from a 47-year-old woman in Los Angeles.

How it all came together

After the couple received the call in April, and Frank agreed to be a donor, he had to pass a series of requirements. "I've been through all sorts of tests during the last eight months to make sure that I was a viable donor," he said.

He had to be in overall excellent health so he would not develop complications as a result of losing one kidney. He met all the qualifications, he said, so his remaining kidney should be adequate to meet his needs.

"In addition to that, the remaining kidney is going to sense that it's getting a little extra work and it will grow 50 percent," he said.

To be a pair donor, Kim also had to be in good health for her to withstand the transplant.

Once everything was clear in August, Frank and Kim's names were entered into the National Kidney Registry. When a pair enters the registry, "a computer searches throughout all the pairs to try to find a way to string together a chain of people where there's compatibility within the group," Frank said. "It's like musical chairs."

False hopes

This is the sixth chain the couple has been linked to.

"In the first chain, my kidney was going to New York, then to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, then back to New Jersey, then Ohio," Frank recalled. "All of those fell apart for some reason. There's a lot of finger-crossing throughout this entire process," he said, because it has multiple "ifs" and any of one of them can derail the entire process.

The couple has gone through many ups and downs. When they received information from the first potential transplant, Kim began to receive get well cards from family and friends. But the the transplant never came through.

At that point, her daughter, Melissa Culver, decided to start a blog to keep everyone informed about her mother's journey.

Home hemodialysis

In April 2008, Kim began to have home hemodialysis, thanks to an advancement that became available at just the right time.

NxStage System One, is a portable machine that allows patients to dialyze at home instead of going to a clinic or hospital. Patients are even able to carry the machine with them when they go on vacation or business trips.

In 2008, there were just 3,000 patients around the country using the technology, Frank said.

Kim was the second person to use it in Merced County.

Now there are six people in the county who use the machine to dialyze in the comfort of their own homes.

"The beauty is being able to pick your days and times," Frank said.

He operates the machine when Kim needs to dialyze. He also takes her blood pressure and makes sure that everything goes right.

Kim goes through the treatment four times a week. "We can do it as little as three, but we stick to four times a week," she said.

The process takes about three hours. Kim said the process is only painful at first when Frank injects two thick needles into her right arm in order to carry her blood through a filter in the machine and back into her body.

Frank said dialysis is a bridge until the patient receives a transplant.

"I knew that God had a plan for my life, and this was part of my plan," Kim said.

Frank said there was a lot of learning but that they never became discouraged.

Kim's last dialysis was Friday.

The big day

Frank will check in at the University of California Davis Medical Center at 8 p.m. Sunday. The operation to remove his kidney will take place at 5 a.m. Monday.

Kim will check in at 5:30 a.m. Monday and will undergo transplant surgery at 1:30 p.m.

"It's hard to believe that is happening after all these years," Frank said.

Kim said she will be disappointed if the transplant doesn't work out. "But I'll live with it," she added.

Frank said some 80,000 people in the country at any given time need a kidney transplant. But just 10,000 transplants are performed a year.

The average life expectancy for a person who has a kidney transplant from a cadaver is seven years, Frank said. That rate increases to 15 years when the kidney donor is a living person.

Frank said Kim will be able to live beyond the average of 15 years because she's in good health.

That will make one member of her family who was able to win a battle with kidney disease.

Reporter Yesenia Amaro can be reached at (209) 388-6507 or yamaro@mercedsun-star.com.

This story was originally published December 4, 2010 at 1:52 AM with the headline "Woman's long wait for kidney is over."