"Find a kidney for Kashla."
These words came to Suzette in prayer at an evening church service when the service was abruptly halted to announce that the sister of a fellow congregant was in hospital and critically ill. Wanting to help but worried about intruding in the family's business, Suzette prayed for the young woman who, she would later learn, needed a kidney transplant.
"Find a kidney for Kashla."
Suzette continued to seek spiritual guidance. Then, with the family's blessing, Suzette and Kashla's family organized an educational seminar at their church for people to meet Kashla and learn more about kidney transplantation. Before the meeting, Suzette was tested to see if she might be a match-;if only to show others how simple the process was. Suzette was devastated by the poor turnout at the seminar. "I just wept when I got home. Kashla was walking dead-;she was so sick. And I asked, ‘Lord, do they not see how sick she is?'"
Suzette, however, faced even more disappointment when she found out she wasn't a match. Keeping an open mind, she learned that while her kidney might not be a match for Kashla, it might match someone else who needed a transplant through the Paired Exchange Donor Transplant Program. The Program's Director is Adam Bingaman, MD, PhD. Suzette was surprised that this might be possible. "‘Really? You guys do that? Dr. Bingaman knows how to do that?'" Suzette asked the transplant team at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital.
So Suzette's prayer would be answered: it didn't matter who got her kidney because her sole obligation was to find a kidney for Kashla. "Was I afraid? Yes! But my source of strength comes through my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who told me to be strong and courageous-;and that another family would be blessed with my help," says Suzette.
But it wasn't to be…at least not yet. With her grandmother's health failing, Suzette had to return to Maryland, missing the initial opportunity for the kidney transplant. Suzette stayed for a time in Maryland until she heard the words again:
"Find a kidney for Kashla."
Finally, in late January 2011, as part of a non-directed donor chain, Suzette donated her kidney and Kashla received one from another donor.
Following the surgery, Suzette followed the instructions of the nursing staff and surgeons to a T. "It wasn't a piece of cake, but I was a little pistol! I was determined not to be in a lot of pain, and got up and walked the halls not long after the surgery and did everything they told me to do," Suzette says. And that worked well, until the gas pains from the carbon dioxide that was used to inflate her abdomen during the laparoscopic procedure became intense. Instead of medication, Suzette used another remedy-;Canada Dry ginger ale. Her friend had brought her a case of it.
"Then I drank that ginger ale and burped like a MAN!" Suzette laughs. "And that relief was like joy from the Lord!"
Following her time in the hospital, Suzette's recovery went smoothly. She ate, prayed, meditated on the word of God, spent time in her garden and thought about the person who received her kidney. "I hope whoever got it is living life to the fullest," she says.
Suzette is reflective about the process and how her faith in Jesus and her trust in Methodist Hospital intersected with her own anxiety of donating her kidney. "We are all human-;of the flesh. It's natural that we are afraid to get tested. And it's a long process. It happens in His time. But I always knew that Methodist Hospital is not going to just take any kidney," she says.
"The one thing I love is that they care about you. They didn't just care about my kidney, they cared about me. I will tell anyone that the hospital will not forsake you just like God won't forsake you."
For her part, she admits to having questions about why the Lord chose her to find a kidney for Kashla. "I'm still mystified and amazed by it all, but through Christ all things are possible," Suzette says.
Click here to read Kashla's Story - Kidney Transplant
Adam Bingaman, MD, PhD, Francis Wright, Jr., Medical Director, Abdominal Transplant Program, Preston Foster, MD, FACS,, Juan Palma-Vargas, MD, and Luke Shen, MD are transplant surgeons with Texas Transplant Physician Group. They serve patients at Texas Transplant Institute's Kidney Transplant Program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio, Texas