Now They Will Truly Be Blood Brothers

A cop and a prison guard will enter UCLA Medical Center today, and within 24 hours, both their lives will change forever.

Oscar Trujillo, a guard at Norco State Correctional Facility in Riverside County, couldn’t stand to see his brother Hugo dependent on a dialysis machine, unable to fully participate in sports and family activities, and confined to light duty in his job as a Los Angeles police officer.

“Seeing him like that, I just said, ‘Hey, put me down for the kidney,’ ” he said.

The sacrifice didn’t seem too much. “That’s why God gave us brothers and sisters,” Oscar said.

The Trujillo family has always been close, so when brother Hugo couldn’t shake a recurring case of what he thought was stomach flu, brother Oscar nagged him about going to the doctor.

Finally, weak and exhausted, Hugo gave in. He said his doctor told him it was not flu, but kidney failure resulting from high blood pressure, the second-leading cause of the disease in the United States.

Doctors immediately placed Hugo on dialysis, three treatments a week, three hours at a time.

Hugo’s name went on a waiting list for a transplant donor in December 1997. His doctor told him it might be five years or more. Thanks to Oscar, Hugo’s wait has been much shorter.

“Soon as I told my family, they all lined up. My brother was the first in line,” Hugo said.

Oscar, tested first, was a match.

“I’m a lucky guy, “ Hugo said.

And he is, because the demand for donated organs nationwide has risen, while the supply has dropped in recent years. More than 40,000 people are on the national waiting list for a kidney transplant. In 1997, almost 2,000 kidney patients died waiting for lifesaving organs because of lack of available donors, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Oscar had another reason for volunteering so quickly. Hugo said he would have trouble seeing sisters Karen and Blanca or another brother, Enzo, endure the pain of a transplant operation.

“If it’s me, I don’t have to watch one of the others go through it,” he said.

Hugo, 40, is relieved that the transplant is about to take place. His wife has been worried, he said, and his daughter has cried at night, saying, “I don’t want my daddy to die.”

“I was really sick. I thought I was going to die,” he said. “It was really my fault. I waited too long to go to the doctor.”

The brothers have high hopes about the surgery Wednesday. One year after surgery, according to the National Kidney Foundation, about 93% of kidneys transplanted from living, related donors are still functioning well.

While he appreciated Oscar’s sacrifice beyond words, Hugo said he was concerned that his brother’s quality of life would be diminished.

“I made sure he could survive on one kidney alone,” he said.

The surgery is not expected to change Oscar’s life expectancy, experts say, because one kidney is deemed sufficient to cleanse the body of waste and excess fluid.

Donors can often resume their normal lives within four to six weeks, according to the National Kidney Foundation. The mortality risk is less than for an appendectomy, a gall bladder operation or a knee replacement, officials say.

Hugo lives in Rialto and has been a LAPD officer for 17 years. The father of three children, he coached softball and basketball and was one of the LAPD’s top runners in their annual Bakersfield to Vegas run.

Oscar, 42, a Pomona resident who has been a guard for almost 10 years, is divorced and has a 6-year-old son, Adam, whom he has told of the operation.

“At first he was a little worried, but now he’s OK,” Oscar said. “He says he loves his uncle too, and he doesn’t want him to be sick.”

Very different circumstances brought Oscar to surgery the only other time he was hospitalized.

“In 1980 I was stabbed and 25% of my lung collapsed,” he said. He was a security guard at the Glendale Galleria when would-be carjackers accosted a woman, then tried to escape on foot. One of the carjackers attacked Oscar with a knife as he pursued them. Surgery to repair the lung injuries was successful.

Recently, the brothers have teased one another about the kidney, with Hugo warning Oscar about what he eats and drinks that might affect the kidney. And Oscar offering Hugo post-operation advice.

“Take care of that kidney, it’s the only one I can give you,” he said. “I’m saving the other one in case my son needs it.”