Oklahoma Woman Shares Her Family's Transplant Journey
April is National Donate Life Month, an awareness event designed to encourage Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors. It is also a time set aside to honor those who have saved lives through the gift of organ donation. INTEGRIS Health recently celebrated with a flag raising ceremony to honor National Donate Life Month. Red Oak resident Linda Morgan shared the path she and her husband, Howard, traveled as she gave him a kidney after his kidneys failed.
“My journey began in April 2019 when my husband had a heart attack and his kidneys failed. He had been diabetic and known that his kidneys were not in great shape. We had discussed the possibility of a transplant, but it became an immediate reality. There was a waiting period after his triple bypass before we could begin the process. I spent the next few months researching and preparing for the journey. As soon as he was released to begin, we applied to two transplant centers.”
Howard began dialysis a few days before bypass surgery. Over the next two years, he had 308 dialysis treatments. The Morgans live in southeastern Oklahoma and traveled one hour each way, three days a week for treatments. He entered the center where they weighed him, took his vitals, put two needles in his arm, and put him on the dialysis machine. He was on the machine four hours each time. Then another hour home. Sometimes it took more than four hours. But he never missed an appointment.
They went to dialysis on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Then they traveled to doctors’ appointments in Tulsa, Muskogee, Oklahoma City and McAlester on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Howard was approved in December 2019 for further consideration for transplant. They traveled to the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston in February 2020, and he was approved. Linda immediately began testing to be his living donor. She passed tests, and they were scheduled for transplant in August 2020.
“As you will remember, COVID showed its ugly head in the United States in January 2020,” Morgan said. “By July, COVID had taken over and the Houston VA center stopped all planned living donor transplants.”
As they wondered and prayed what their next step would be, they received a call from the INTEGRIS Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute wanting to know if they were still interested. Of course, they were! Howard began testing in September and was approved on Dec. 14, 2020. On Dec. 29, they went to INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center for a crossmatch test. They matched! On March 2, they received the call. The transplant was scheduled for March 29.
“People ask, ‘Why did you do it?’” Morgan said. “I love my husband. But, for two years I watched the brave, strong, courageous, most fragile men and women go to the dialysis center day after day—it was their lifeline. Some had hopes of a transplant, others did not. I watched my husband go faithfully to dialysis while not wanting to. I saw him exhausted—not only on Monday, Wednesday, Friday dialysis days, but on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Yet he jumped through every hoop placed in our path to stay alive and make a transplant happen.”
“I would do it again,” she added. “First, I got the most comprehensive health check you can imagine. I learned that I was very healthy. That was good to know. It is amazing how concerned the transplant team is with the potential donor. They work to ensure the donor’s health will not be adversely affected by the transplant.”
The Morgans just celebrated their one-year anniversary of their transplant. “If I did not have a tiny scar, I wouldn’t know anything changed,” added Linda.
“The best part is seeing my husband get his life back,” Morgan said. “His smile, his laugh, his joy. . . it’s indescribable. We go, and we do. We watch our grandson play ball, do things with our children and grandchildren. We live with a freedom we had lost.”
She explained there is one more step. When she leaves this world, she will donate her remaining kidney to give life back to someone else.
“They can take any part of this earthly body that can be used to bless someone,” she said. “You don’t realize how grueling dialysis is until you or someone you love lives it. We have learned so much. Our journey was longer and more complicated due to COVID. We are thankful for the men and women who helped us along the way. For the McAlester DaVita Dialysis Center team who cared for my husband and helps so many others sustain life. We are thankful for those who made arrangements for appointments when there were no appointments available; those who supported us; those who prayed; and for those who celebrated with us.”
Morgan praised the INTEGRIS Health transplant team for their caring and professionalism. The team continues to monitor Howard’s labs and health. “We are blessed to have the best transplant team and the VA to help us as we continue our journey,” Morgan said. “God definitely has a way of working things out how they need to be. I pray more people will step up to help others.”
One organ donor can extend the lives of up to eight people, restore sight to two people through cornea donation and heal up to 75 others through tissue donation. Oklahomans have three options to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor. Residents can sign up when renewing their driver’s license, visit LifeShareRegistery.org to sign up online, or call 800.826.LIFE (5433) and request a donor registration form.
