Newest Test Buoys Couple : Health: Mission Viejo woman learns there’s no lasting damage to kidney she hopes to donate to husband of 4 days. Mishap complicated transplant.

SAN DIEGO — A pair of Orange County newlyweds whose planned kidney transplant attracted nationwide attention before a medical mishap postponed the surgery, said Friday they remain hopeful of going through with the crucial operation as soon as possible.

The couple’s spirits were buoyed by test results showing no lasting damage to the kidney that Victoria Ingram-Curlee hopes to donate to Randall Curlee, her gravely ill husband of four days.

“I’m feeling great,” a beaming Victoria Ingram-Curlee said at a news conference at Sharp Memorial Hospital before leaving with her husband for their Mission Viejo home. “We got a lot of really good news, which I knew was going to happen anyway.”

Groggy from anti-rejection drugs given in anticipation of Wednesday’s scheduled transplant, Randall Curlee, 46, was more philosophical.

“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this week,” he said, looking pale and gaunt. “The doctors involved” in the routine procedure that went awry “had performed it for 25 years without a problem. But it happened for a reason, I suppose.”

Officials at Sharp Memorial said the switchboard had been flooded with hundreds of calls since the couple exchanged vows. The calls accelerated sharply after Wednesday’s mishap, and included one from a U.S. senator who asked to remain unidentified.

Many of the calls came from people hoping to donate a kidney to Curlee should Ingram-Curlee’s somehow fail to heal.

The couple, who was married in a ceremony Tuesday in the hospital chapel, beat enormous odds when it was discovered that Ingram-Curlee was a near-perfect organ donor for her mate.

In the preoperative procedure, called an “arteriogram,” Ingram-Curlee, 45, suffered a small, linear tear in one of three arteries leading to the lower part of her left kidney from a narrow catheter tube inserted in the artery to check blood flow.

The mishap forced doctors to delay the transplant three to four weeks to allow time for Ingram-Curlee to heal. That day, they said Ingram-Curlee stood as much as a 35% chance of permanent kidney damage that would have eliminated her as a donor. Curlee needs the transplant because his kidneys are failing from the effects of diabetes.

At Ingram-Curlee’s behest, doctors conducted a test late Thursday that allowed them to observe the function of her kidney and whether any lasting damage had occurred.

On Friday, the transplant team at Sharp Memorial Hospital here labeled the test a resounding success, saying it revealed no damage.

“I would have waited to give the test,” Dr. Arturo Martinez, a member of the transplant team, said Friday. “That’s because I didn’t want to give them false hopes either way. But Victoria insisted.”

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Ingram-Curlee is a remarkable woman and an “overwhelmingly positive” one at that, Martinez said, noting that the transplant should occur within three to four weeks.

He noted, however, that Curlee may yet receive a kidney from a donor other than his wife, should one materialize. Doctors said those chances are minimal, but said Curlee remains on a national waiting list.

Ingram-Curlee said emphatically that she did not blame the mishap on the hospital, and particularly invasive radiologist Dr. Harold Coons, whose 21-year career has included more than 20,000 previous arteriograms--none with problems.

“Human error,” Ingram-Curlee said, then corrected herself. “No, it wasn’t even human error. Who knows what it was? Why should I be angry? Things happen. Who knows what caused that to happen?”

Without putting odds on a complete recovery, Martinez said Friday that Ingram-Curlee’s chances of being able to donate either kidney to Curlee “are certainly much better now.”

Echoing the couple’s sentiments, Martinez said he hoped the publicity generated by the nationally televised wedding ceremony and the planned transplant represented a kind of turning point in more donors coming forward for the 25,720 Americans waiting for kidneys.

“It’s brought some attention and some education to the whole process,” said Curlee, who met his wife, an Orange County real estate agent, two years ago during an open house. “Six months ago, Victoria and I didn’t know any of this. We think it’s important people know they can help others. The outpouring of support and people volunteering their kidneys has been tremendous, and we’re very thankful for that.”

Still, the couple acknowledged feeling jolted by Wednesday’s mishap.

“I was devastated,” Ingram-Curlee said. “I was terribly disappointed. I was kind of in shock.”

She said she mentioned only reluctantly to Coons, the radiologist, that she was feeling a twinge of pain, which forced him to repeat the arteriogram. He then noticed the nick in one of the arteries.

Dr. Robert Mendez, who directs the transplant team at Sharp Memorial, “told me a story about his family,” Ingram-Curlee said Friday. During a vacation, his “nephew forgot his visa in the hotel room, which forced the entire family to take the next flight. The flight they were supposed to have taken? It crashed, killing everybody on board.”

She paused, then added, “So I just didn’t take that flight. And now I’m ready for the next flight. I know it will turn out well.”

Ingram-Curlee is to have another test on her kidney Oct. 26, after which “I hope we can schedule (the transplant) within a week,” she said.

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Had the tear not been detected, the surgery would have gone ahead as planned and, doctors said, everything might have been fine.

But had he received a damaged kidney, “I might have rejected the kidney and formed antibodies toward all kidneys,” Curlee said. “On down the road, it could have made it difficult for another transplant, had this one not worked.”

Curlee could receive a kidney from a donor other than his wife, but doesn’t want that--mainly because she doesn’t. Doctors say she remains an almost-perfect candidate as a donor. “I would be more concerned with how it would affect Victoria,” he said, should another donor be used. “This is something she really feels strongly about. She wants to show others that this is possible, and that they should consider it.”