Man gets 4 life-saving kidney donations from family members
A man who has battled kidney disease his entire life has received four life-saving kidney donations from members of his family.
While most people needing a kidney transplant wait three to five years on the national transplant waiting list, Mark Fenrich, 34, received the organ donations more quickly because members of his family volunteered to donate a kidney and were a match.
Fenrich, who has suffered from kidney disease since he was a toddler, has "defied all odds," according to his doctors, because his body didn't reject each of the kidney transplants, according to Fox News Digital.
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After receiving his first transplant from his mother, Fenrich needed another kidney transplant around the time he was 12. His father was the second family member who donated a kidney.
"As I grew up, my parents treated me like a normal child," Fenrich said, as reported by Fox News, adding that they didn't focus on the idea "that I had this looming thing in the background."
"Once all the fanfare around the actual event itself settled down, I just kind of forgot about it for a while, other than taking my daily meds."
However, by 2015, 26-year-old Fenrich needed another kidney transplant. His uncle was the third family member who donated a kidney. The fourth transplant took place in April, with a cousin providing the much-needed organ in April.
Doctors eventually determined that he suffered from a genetic disorder called aHUS (atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome), which leads to small clots forming in the blood vessels, which block blood flow to the kidneys. The condition can cause kidney damage or failure.
According to Dr. John Bynon of the Memorial Hermann Transplant Center at Texas Medical Center in Houston, “only about one out of five people who have had a previous transplant get a second chance at the surgery because they become ‘sensitized.’”
"It's hard to find a kidney that [the body] won't reject right away," Bynon told the outlet.
Nonetheless, Fenrich’s surgery turned out to be a success story. Months later, he reported feeling healthy and strong.
"I don't look at my kidney transplants as something that's ever held me back," Fenrich added. "Energy-wise, I would say I'm better than where I was with the third transplant in terms of quality of life."
"My mom and dad were bound to do it and had no choice," he joked. "But my uncle and my cousin never had to step up and do any of this. There's really no dollar amount, and no words that I could say, that would be sufficient to thank them."
In order to prevent another kidney rejection, Fenrich now takes a medication called eculizumab and has blood work done once a month to make sure his new kidney is healthy.
"The development of this drug and its routine use for people like Mark has been a godsend for those patients," Bynon said, as reported by Fox News.
"When you identify a patient who has aHUS, the important thing is to treat them at the time of transplant or right before the transplant, so you can prevent this process from ever starting."
Given the high quality of the fourth kidney Fenrich received, Bynon told Fox News Digital that his wish for Fenrich is that the kidney will last for the rest of his life.
"It's a life-saving event," he concluded. "Maybe not as dramatic as a heart or liver transplant, but life-saving just the same."
Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post.
