Hoag doctor’s gift to a colleague: a kidney
Dr. Colleen Coleman doesn’t particularly like needles. In college, she once fainted when trying to give blood.
But last year, when the Hoag Hospital general surgeon heard about the health problems of her anesthesiologist colleague Dr. Brian Dunn, she stepped up, putting her needle anxiety aside.
Coleman agreed to give him her kidney.
“I can’t donate blood, but I’ll give a kidney” became her running joke.
Dunn last had a kidney transplant 20 years ago. His mother was the donor.
But the organ was old and running short of time. Last year, it was determined that Dunn needed another.
When Dunn and Coleman realized they were the same blood type, it didn’t take Coleman long to agree to help her colleague of more than a dozen years.
At first, Coleman wasn’t considered a match — several factors go into determining a match besides blood type, including tissue type and the number of human leukocyte antigens in common — but the findings reversed in August.
“When she told me she was a match, I was just floored … it was a gamut of emotions, but it was a lot of hope too,” Dunn said.
Dunn, though, felt hesitant about accepting such a personal and difficult sacrifice.
“It’s such a big gift,” Dunn added. “You don’t even know how to accept a gift that big. It was these weird, mixed emotions when I found out she was a match. I was cautiously optimistic, but it’s been just a total blessing.”
Dunn added with a smile that Coleman actually made it “all easy.”
A lot of the burden fell on the donor. Coleman underwent various tests for things like HIV or West Nile virus. She had a colonoscopy, a mammogram, a physical exam and a “gamut of blood tests.”
“I think I siphoned off probably 50 vials on the whole process,” Coleman said.
She also had to collect all her urine in a 24-hour period for testing and undergo a CT scan, an ultrasound and a cardiac stress test.
Coleman met with a host of experts, including various doctors, a social worker and a nutritionist. She asked them if they would do the same thing she was doing. Some replied no; others said they’d only do it for a family member.
Coleman says her gift comes with no strings attached, but she would be upset if her kidney was problematic for Dunn.
“Who wants to give somebody a bum kidney?” she said.
“It’s been a great kidney,” Dunn quickly replied.
The surgery took place Jan. 30 at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. Dunn is still off duty recovering. Coleman was able to return to work after a few weeks and has since received much praise — not to mention flowers, food and other gifts — from her colleagues.
She jokes now that her “best gift so far” is that no one bugs her if she’s late to the operating room.
“Hoag is such a family,” Dunn said. Everyone from the chief executive down has been “super supportive,” he added.
Dunn said he has been feeling great since the surgery. He has more energy.
Coleman has been tired since the donation, but that’s a temporary side effect. She said she’s trying to be more health-conscious, drinking more water and sticking with other good habits.
After the surgery, Dunn wrote Coleman a letter and gave her some Tiffany earrings shaped like kidneys. Coleman’s family gave her a necklace with a tiny kidney charm on it.
Coleman jokes that she has more organs to give, “but I’d rather keep them.”
Twitter: @BradleyZint
