The power of organ donation: 3 couples celebrate after life-saving, 6-person kidney exchange

By Ashley Mackey

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    LOMA LINDA, California (KABC) — Loma Linda University Transplant Institute recently held a reunion to celebrate a very unique situation — a six-person kidney exchange. For the first time, three kidney transplant recipients met the people who saved their lives.

“Not only did I help my husband, but I helped a whole other family,” said Ashley Dade about being a donor in the kidney exchange program.

Through a life changing exchange, the three couples now get a fresh start.

There are more than 90,000 patients on the kidney transplant list in the United States and not all have living donors. Sometimes, those patients do have donors, but they’re not a match.

“They may not be compatible and so that’s where this, what we call a kidney swap or a pair exchange, come in,” said Michael de Vera, chief of transplant at Loma Linda University Health.

This is the first time the three donors and three recipients met. At the reunion event, they all shared how different life has been since their surgeries.

“Our lifestyle was different because of my lack of energy before the transplant and now I can have a pretty normal life taking care of my daughters,” said Florenzia Cortes, one of the three kidney recipients.

Khy Dade, another recipient, says he was on dialysis for four years. Jerry Luna says he was on the waiting list for 10 years and had dialysis every day for 10 hours. Both of their spouses say they would make the same decision all over again.

“I think it’s a true blessing that this program is available because through this program we were able to receive and donate, so I think it’s a blessing,” said Laura Luna, Jerry’s wife.

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