Mother Donates Kidney in Bid to Save 2 Sons

An Argentine couple living in Canoga Park moved closer to their goal of saving the lives of their two sons Monday when Susana Gurtman, 47, donated her right kidney to son Eduardo, 23.

Eduardo and his brother, Jorge, 22, suffer from lupus, a skin disease that can affect internal organs.

According to their father, Dr. Angel Gurtman, who hopes to give one of his kidneys to Jorge, the transplant operations at UCLA Medical Center appeared, at least initially, to be successful.

“We are planning to celebrate as soon as they are well,” said Gurtman, a 61-year-old physician. “At least there was no acute rejection.” The family came to the United States last year seeking treatment for the brothers. The kidneys of both had failed as a complication of the disease, systemic lupus erythematosus.

Dependent on Dialysis

Since their kidneys stopped functioning, the brothers have been dependent on dialysis, the mechanical purification of their blood. If their transplants are successful and the effects of their lupus can be checked, the brothers can expect to live relatively normal lives. “In general, people can live with one kidney very well,” Gurtman said.

“The kidney began to function as soon as it was put in place,” Gurtman said Monday afternoon as he waited outside the intensive-care unit where Eduardo was recovering.

Susana Gurtman’s surgery, performed by Dr. Robert B. Smith, took about two hours. The son’s operation, performed by Dr. Richard Ehrlich, took about three hours. “She’s with much pain now,” Gurtman said. “Both of them are.”

‘She’s Very Happy’

Gurtman said his wife did not hesitate to undergo the operation. “She’s really very happy to have done it,” he said.

Jorge Gurtman, who has been battling lupus for 10 years and is more seriously ill than his brother, was with his father at the hospital. Jorge’s surgery has been deferred until his lupus can be controlled and the odds of his accepting his father’s kidney improve. No date for the operation has been set.

Gurtman said that Jorge was understandably ambivalent about his brother’s surgery.

“On the one side, he would like his brother to be in good health,” he said. “On the other side, he would have liked to have been the one who got the kidney.”

The physician, who is in the United States on a tourist visa and is unable to work at his profession, said that the medical center had arranged for him to pay for the operations on an installment plan. Gurtman said that he has made two $25,000 payments and has agreed to pay $2,000 a month through March, 1986, for the four surgeries.

As soon as both sons are well, the Gurtmans plan to leave their borrowed condominium in Canoga Park and return to Argentina.

“I would like to go back to my practice, my hospital, my work, my friends and my family,” said Gurtman, whose daughter, a 24-year-old physician, remained in Argentina. “But the first thing is the health of my sons. Everything else is secondary to that.”