By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Staff Writer
2/11/10
Bill found out he had a condition known as polycystic kidney disease about 20 years ago, right around the time he and Susan were getting married. The genetic disorder that causes numerous cysts to form in the kidneys hadn’t really become an issue. But about three years ago, when the disease began to rear its head, it became apparent that both his kidneys had declined. He was going to need either a kidney transplant or dialysis.
“It was just miserable: gout, the weight, my legs were bloated,” Bill said, explaining the effect the disease had on him.
He was about 44 years old and he knew he wanted to live as normal a life as he could for as long as possible. A transplant was the way he hoped to go, but to find a donor who matched his needs was going to be a challenge, or so he thought.
According to a U.S. government Web site on organ donation, the average wait time for a patient waiting for a kidney donation is 1,121 days. Certain things must be in place to find a match. The donor and recipient must have matching blood and tissue types, and have a positive outcome on a cross-matching test. There are many factors and concerns to rule out rejection, and potential donors go through a rigorous battery of tests to determine compatibility.
So, imagine the odds that a husband and wife truly could be the perfect match.
“The most obvious thing was to start with me. Let’s get tested,” Susan said.“I was the only one that got tested because it stopped there. It worked. So we didn’t have to go through a whole, long, wait list.”
Once it was determined that Susan was a match, she had to go through more testing, evaluating her overall physical and mental health.
“In part of the screening process, they do talk to a psychologist,” Bill noted.
“They gave me such a workup, asking me was I feeling pressured to do this, or was there any coercion,” said Susan. “I said, ‘I know you have to ask those questions, but put yourself in my shoes. This is a great thing. My kids are going to have their father back to a healthy status. And I’ll have my husband back.’ Anyone would do it, if they could.”
Once cleared, the surgery was scheduled after Thanksgiving of 2007. Leaving their four children, Dana, now 17, Jay, 16, Jessica, 14, and Will, 9, in the care of family and friends, the Hankards checked in to New England Medical Center, where a surgical team led by Dr. Ronald Perrone oversaw the process Nov. 27.
All went well, and they even shared a room for their recovery, which was a little less than a week in the hospital.
“And after the operation, it was like night and day,” Bill said, remembering how good he felt.
Susan’s recovery, however, was a little different.
“Basically, you go in feeling good and you come out recovering from major surgery,” Susan said. “But he felt great.”
For a few weeks following the surgery, the couple recuperated together at home. Family and a wonderful community of Milton friends arrived daily with meals and rides for the kids, and within a couple of weeks things began to return to normal. Susan was back on her feet about a month later, returning to her job as a preschool teacher at Carriage House Nursery School, and by February, Bill was back to work at IBM, where he is a software engineer. Bill continues to have checkups and is taking a regiment of immunosuppressant drugs, but he feels he has been given a new lease on life.
“How do I feel?” Bill began, as he was asked his feelings about the sacrifice his wife made for him. “For Susy to give me her kidney, my God, you just can’t describe it. If you haven’t gone through it, I guess words can’t describe how you feel.”
“But as I always say, anybody would do it,” Susan quickly countered, adding that being a live organ donor wasn’t that difficult. “I don’t want it to be a huge platform of mine, but everybody knows how I feel. I’m just kind of your average person with no medical background and I could do this. My life happened to have that need in it. I don’t really know that much about other transplants, but I know for kidneys, you have two. You can spare one.”
These days, life at the Hankard house is as normal as most families. They can often be found at Milton High School hockey games, watching Jay play. But their experience raising Jessica may have helped them get through some of Bill’s medical issues.
Jessica was born with Down syndrome, and has had three heart surgeries of her own during her young life. She is doing well, and has been able to attend school, with the support of special education teachers and aides in the Milton public schools. Currently she is in sixth grade at Pierce Middle School, but continues to have her own set of medical issues.
“I don’t know if this sounds cavalier about medical stuff, but [we’ve] been thrown stuff like this from day one,” Susan said, suggesting that the experience has brought them closer as a family.
Clearly, the Hankards share a special, loving bond – along with a pair of kidneys. And that fact is something for which Bill will always be grateful.
“Having the opportunity to get a kidney is just phenomenal. It is a gift,” he said. “I’m lucky. I’m a lucky guy. That’s all I can say.”