EDINBURG — Rio Grande Valley residents who either needed an organ transplant, or needed to help, found each other somehow in the end, and what started out with one man’s need for a new kidney ended with four people undergoing surgery nearly simultaneously one day in July.
Miguel Garza was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease about 18 years ago when he was 24 years old. It was this year, though, that he really started to feel the strain of his failing kidneys.
He was going to need a kidney transplant and his wife, Lucy Garza, wanted to do everything she could to help by donating one of hers. Unfortunately, she wasn’t a match but because of the donor exchange program available at DHR Health, Lucy was still able to donate her kidney while Miguel was able to receive one from someone else.
Lucy donated her kidney to Nicolas Castillo, 51, who had been on dialysis since 2019.
For Miguel, it was one of DHR’s own nurses — Marcela Miranda, 48 — who turned out to be a match and who volunteered herself to donate her kidney to him.
The four underwent surgery in what was the first domino paired kidney donation in the Rio Grande Valley through the DHR Health Transplant Institute.
Paired donation allows a way for people to receive a living-donor transplant instead of being on the deceased-donor waiting list for several years.
The surgeries took place on July 12 for the kidney exchange but it wasn’t until a news conference Thursday morning that Miguel and Nicolas met Marcela and Lucy, their respective donors.
The four tearfully embraced each other during a reunion at DHR Health and exchanged words of gratitude to one another.
“It was great to have somebody come up (to) altruistically donate their kidney,” Miguel said of Marcela. “She was the one that really was able to start the process.”
“I think without both of them — without all three of them, really — none of this would have been possible,” he added.
Gripped with emotion, Nicolas said few words but thanked Lucy for giving him another chance at life.
“I feel really happy because you changed my life,” Nicolas said in Spanish.
Lucy thanked Marcela for helping her husband, adding after the news conference that she was thankful for the opportunity to help Nicolas as well.
“It means so much to me that I could not only help my husband but help somebody else,” Lucy said. “I’m just so grateful to Marcela for her gift that allowed me to give a gift.”
Marcela, the DHR Health nurse, said her decision to donate her kidney was part of her spiritual and personal growth and done from a desire to do something for humanity.
“It was the most amazing experience that I could ever have,” she said.
The process of removing the kidneys from Marcela and Lucy and transferring them to Miguel and Nicolas all occurred in one day.
“It’s a high level arrangement,” said Dr. Mourad Alsabbagh, a transplant nephrologist at DHR Health. “You need to do the four surgeries around the same time.”
Altogether, it took about 12 hours — from 5 a.m. to about 5 p.m., according to Jose Luis Almeda, transplant surgeon and director of the DHR Health Transplant Institute.
“It’s pretty challenging — it’s four surgeries all at the same time so the hospital has to be prepared and then it has to go perfect,” Almeda said. “One thing goes wrong in the domino, the whole thing doesn’t work out very well.”
But the surgeries were a success, allowing two patients a second chance at life.
The two recipients will remain on medication for their immune system and will continue to be monitored by the physicians, Almeda said. The two donors will also be monitored to ensure they retain a healthy lifestyle.
When Almeda sought to create a transplant program at DHR 10 years ago, he never imagined they would reach this point.
“This is something very special,” Almeda said. “I imagined we would be doing transplants but this type of transplant is another level, it’s another level for the people of the Valley. It’s important that they know that this is a possibility.”
This particular kidney exchange would not have been possible if Marcela hadn’t volunteered to donate her kidney out of sheer altruism.
“Because we have a donor exchange program, we try to crisscross and we try to get one to match the other but that wouldn’t have happened until we had someone who donated and it just so happened to be that Marcela wanted to do it on her own accord, out of her own heart,” Almeda said. “What would have happened is that that transplant probably wouldn’t have happened so Miguel and Mr. Castillo probably would still be on dialysis right now.”
Though it was Marcela who made the personal sacrifice, she thanked the recipient of her kidney, Miguel, for the opportunity to give.
“Miguel, I want to thank you because through this act of donation, I received an extra heart where I can love longer, better, and more,” Marcela said to him during the news conference. “I got so much clarity about my life purpose and about where I am heading.”
“Also, I discovered the secret of happiness which is the altruism and compassion,” she said.
