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	Debra Callaway, a teacher at an alternative high school in Overland Park, donated a kidney to a stranger in December. Photo by Melodie Woerman

"I just knew"
Shawnee parishioner donates kidney to a stranger

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

Debra Callaway did something that seemed perfectly natural to her but strikes most people as quite extraordinary. She donated one of her kidneys to a total stranger.

Callaway, a member of St. Luke’s, Shawnee, normally is an animated person, but she really gets excited when she describes what motivated her to do what baffled family members and friends alike.

Her decision to give away a kidney was a call, a fire that burned inside her that had to be the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she said. “I just knew.”

That certainty helped her get through two years of medical tests, disappointments and delays but finally resulted in one of her kidneys being transplanted into a sick man in a Kansas City hospital just before Christmas.

Two-year wait finally ends
She first learned that a person can give a kidney, a rare gift called anonymous donation, from an article in a NewYorker magazine she read in the summer of 2004. Her desire to be a donor was instant. “I read the article and thought I could do that,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be a great gift to give to someone, because it would make such a difference.”

Callaway, 54, had signed up to be a bone marrow donor years earlier but never was a perfect match for a transplant. She thought the same rare matching would hold true for a kidney but soon learned that if someone wants to donate a kidney, there is someone who can receive it.

She started the process by contacting Kansas City’s Midwest Transplant Network, one of 50 organ procurement centers in the country. They ran an extensive battery of physical and psychological tests to see if she was a suitable donor. She was in tip-top shape as a marathon runner and eventually was matched with a man needing a transplant.

But there was a hitch. On a 2003 visit to Guatemala, she had contracted malaria. That disease prevents someone from donating blood for at least three years, and an infectious disease physician recommended she similarly delay these plans, just to be sure.

In March 2006, after her waiting period was up, she called the Transplant Network again. She was matched with a new recipient (the previous one had received a kidney in the meantime) and had to recertify all the medical tests.

But the malaria issue kept nagging at the doctors, who’d never encountered this before. They contacted the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta for advice and learned of special blood tests that could determine if all traces of the disease had cleared Callaway’s body. They showed she was malaria-free, so she was matched with a third recipient and finally given a date for the surgery — Dec. 21.

Doctors removed her left kidney and transplanted it into a 33-year-old married man with two children who had been on dialysis for three years. Nurses told her the organ started to work perfectly. She plans to check with the Transplant Network for periodic updates on the recipient’s condition and hopes someday to meet him, if he chooses. She said she likes to picture him vacationing at Disneyworld with his children, something that would have been impossible when he was on dialysis.

Callaway was discharged on Dec. 24 and made it to Christmas Eve services at St. Luke’s just hours later, although the rector, the Rev. Jim Cook, said she was walking just a little slower than usual. She only missed four days of classes at Horizons High School, an alternative secondary school in Overland Park, where she teaches middle school English. She also quickly resumed training for the March 3 Little Rock marathon, logging 12 miles just one month after the operation.

She has to live with only a few restrictions — she can’t take the pain reliever ibuprofen or engage in contact sports. Her remaining kidney has taken over the function of its missing twin and will increase in size somewhat to compensate. She said she feels great.

Family gives reluctant approval
Callaway was virtually alone in her commitment to be an organ donor, although her family gave their reluctant permission. She said she would have stopped the process if her husband had asked her to, but while he wasn’t thrilled he went along with her decision. She said her mother fretted about it but felt better when she learned the man her daughter would help was himself a parent. Callaway’s four stepchildren likewise gave their go-ahead.

She said the reaction of some Christian friends leaves her bewildered. “They said it would be OK to do this for a family member or friend, but a stranger?” she said. “Are they reading the same Bible I am? There’s lots in the Bible about caring for strangers.”

Callaway and her husband have been active members of St. Luke’s for about four years, where she serves as chair of the parish outreach committee. After years of attending her Methodist church, her husband wanted to return to the Episcopal Church in which he was raised, and they found a home at the Shawnee parish. “I love St. Luke’s, although I miss the Methodist hymns,” she said. “Father Jim is fantastic. It’s a great church.”

Cook said the parish is very proud of what Callaway did, with some calling her an inspiration and others a hero. “For myself, I’m just in awe of her, as are many, many of the people at St. Luke’s,” he said. “We’re proud to claim her as one of our own.”

Callaway said she knows anonymous organ donation isn’t for everyone. “I don’t think everyone is called to give away their kidney,” she said. “It’s not the right thing for everyone.” Thinking about what she did gives her great joy, she said, knowing she had such a dramatic impact on someone’s life. But unless the bone marrow registry calls her, she says her days as a donor are over. “I promised my husband I wouldn’t give away any more organs.”