To be considered a match, a donor must have three of eight markers the same as the recipient. Kathy had seven. I'm giving my brother another chance at a normal life. But a few years ago I took care of patients who had donated kidneys and I saw what they went through. Everything checked out normal.
Recovery takes at least six-eight weeks.
Kathy Evans and her brother Patrick Kenny, who is to her left and behind her. After she recovers from the donor surgery she'll have yearly kidney function tests and monitoring for diabetes and high blood pressure, conditions more serious in a person with only one kidney. Kenny was on the list for a cadaver kidney for 19 months without any result. I really didn't want her to do it. But she had a ready answer to her brother's worry about her children.