Man Gets Identical Twin’s Kidney in Transplant

In a rare operation on Thursday, surgeons at UCI Medical Center successfully transplanted a kidney from a Huntington Beach man to his identical twin brother.

Doctors removed the left kidney of Juan Gutierrez and transplanted it in Alfredo Gutierrez in a 4 1/2-hour procedure. The 25-year-old brothers were reportedly doing well, with Alfredo in fair condition and Juan in good condition, hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff said.

“This kind (of operation), with identical twins, is very, very rare,” Tardiff said.

Kidney transplants always involve the possibility of rejection. But, Tardiff said, “it’s a very fortunate thing when you have an identical twin and you need a kidney transplant, because the tissue is a perfect match, and the doctors don’t anticipate any rejection.”

It was the first such operation at the hospital and only the second in Orange County. The other occurred in 1974 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange.

The brothers live in Huntington Beach with their parents and Alfredo’s girlfriend. They have three brothers living in Mexico.

Alfredo’s kidneys failed a year ago because of complications from untreated strep throat he had as a boy growing up in Mexico. Without kidneys, which remove impurities from blood and dispose of them in urine, he has been having his blood cleaned by a dialysis machine three times a week.

During his illness, Alfredo, a former landscape and restaurant worker, has been unable to work, and his weight has dropped to 40 pounds less than his brother’s 180 pounds. Juan has pitched in during this time, making pizzas at a Huntington Beach restaurant at night and delivering advertising circulars by day.