2004 Press Releases

Saint Barnabas Transplant Center Performs One of New Jersey’s First Stranger-to-Stranger Kidney Transplants

The kidney transplant team at the Saint Barnabas Health Care System Renal Transplant Center at Saint Barnabas Medical Center recently performed the center’s first anonymous stranger-to-stranger living donation kidney transplant. While the donation of a kidney to a spouse, good friend or in-law is now a widespread practice, non-directed altruistic donation is emerging as the latest renal transplant option available at this country’s most progressive transplant centers.

“Donating an organ is something I have thought about for as long as I can remember,” says William Waldenmaier, 44 of Middletown who donated one of his kidneys to Christopher Perone of Metuchen. Mr. Waldenmaier had been moving toward making this extraordinary organ donation for most of his life. He signed an organ donor card when he was a teenager and has been donating blood and blood products for many years. He is also listed on the national bone marrow donation registry. Captivated by media stories about transplantation, he volunteered with New Jersey Sharing Network, the organization responsible for the recovery of organs and tissue for transplantation in this region of the United States.

“My biggest inspiration was my wife,” Mr. Waldenmaier says about his decision to give
a kidney. His wife Kimberly suffers from a chronic illness that has been the cause of severe pain and lengthy hospitalizations. “I thought if she can endure all that and stay optimistic, why couldn’t I make a small sacrifice that would make a big difference in someone else’s life,” he reflects.

Known in the transplant field as a non-directed altruistic organ donation, this latest transplant option is becoming more common. “The ethical implication of altruistic organ donation is enormous,” points out Shamkant Mulgaonkar, M.D., Chief of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System Renal Transplant Centers. The Saint Barnabas Transplant Centers and other transplant programs that provide altruistic donor programs shoulder a great responsibility to meet strict ethical guidelines that ensure the purity of each donation. “Altruistic donors meet the same strict medical, psychosocial and ethical criteria used in the selection of all living donors,” notes Dr. Mulgaonkar. One unique feature of the Saint Barnabas program is that the staff evaluates and manages the donor and recipient as two separate teams to ensure that each individual’s needs are considered without bias.

As with all non-directed altruistic donations, Mr. Waldenmaier had no control over the destiny of his donated kidney. “My only wish was that it go to someone whose quality of life would be improved and who could lead a normal life after the transplant,” he remembers. According to the Saint Barnabas Transplant Center’s protocol, the transplant team may not disclose the identity of the donor or recipient until after the surgery is complete and then only if both parties agree. “Both men expressed a desire to meet the other so we arranged a meeting before Mr. Waldenmaier was discharged from the hospital,” explains Marcia Krupit, M.S.W., one of two transplant social workers on the Saint Barnabas team.

Mr. Perone, the father of two boys, learned that he would be receiving a kidney from a kindhearted stranger only 10 days before the scheduled surgery. “I couldn’t imagine that a healthy person would walk into a hospital and want to donate an organ for a stranger,” he recalls. “I really drifted through the next several days trying to work out what seemed so unreal to me. When I was on peritoneal dialysis I used to hope that I could live for another 10 years, -- until my youngest son was 18. This transplant gives me longevity to see my children become men.”

“It takes an extraordinary person to do what Bill did for me,” remarks Mr. Perone. “I am humbled by his gift.” The two men have remained in contact and when he is fully recovered from the transplant, Mr. Perone says he would like his sons to meet Mr. Waldenmaier.

“This successful transplant is a-dream-come true for our entire team,” stresses Ms. Krupit. We have worked for several years developing an altruistic donor program that makes more organs available to people with renal disease, but also protects the health and well-being of the generous individuals who make the donation. The success of this transplant illustrates what we all believe --that one person’s desire to help someone else is enough to make this possible.”

Date: October 29, 2004

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