First triple kidney transplant in Texas saves three lives

LA FERIA - They'd met only once before, months after a kidney-transplant surgery that saved three lives.

On a windy November morning, Emma Martinez and Maria De La Torre saw each other again, exchanged jubilant hugs and rattled off questions to each other in English and Spanish. "How are you feeling?" "How's your son?" "Are you taking care of yourself?"

Back in July, Martinez, of La Feria, donated her kidney to De La Torre, of Mercedes, although the two were strangers at the time. Martinez and De La Torre were participants in a triple kidney-transplant surgery - the first such transplant in Texas - at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio.

Martinez's kidney wasn't a match for her close friend, Delia Gonzales Silvas of San Antonio, who desperately needed a transplant. But through a three-way surgery, which matched three donors with compatible recipients, Martinez still was able to help Silvas and also save De La Torre's life.

"I'm so thankful to her," said De La Torre, 58, clutching Martinez's arm. "I still can't believe it, that I'm free. I feel like a bird flying."

The three-way surgery worked like this: Martinez donated her kidney to De La Torre, De La Torre's son Victor donated his kidney to a San Antonio woman, and that woman's daughter donated her kidney to Martinez's friend, Silvas. All three surgeries took place on the same day.

The program is beneficial for people who need a kidney transplant and have a loved one willing to donate, but he or she isn't a match because of blood type or other factors, said Dr. Adam Bingaman, director of the San Antonio-based Texas Transplant Institute's donor-exchange program.

"We started this program because there are so many people in this situation, who have someone who wants to donate, but the person isn't a match," said Bingaman, a transplant surgeon. "So we put those names in a database and see if it's possible to exchange donors."

Since the institute started the exchange program a year ago, the hospital has performed two paired surgeries and two three-way surgeries. The latest three-way surgery took place just last week, he said.

Methodist Hospital is the only hospital in Texas that performs these exchange surgeries, and is one of only a handful of facilities in the country that offers the procedure, Bingaman said.

  More than one life saved

When Silvas told friend Martinez that she needed a kidney transplant, Martinez didn't hesitate to volunteer to be a donor.

The friends had met through Silvas' music - Silvas is a Tejano singer who has performed with the band Culturas, and Martinez was a fan who, with her husband, traveled around the country to attend Silvas' concerts. The two soon became close. Two years ago, Silvas found out that her kidneys had shut down after a lengthy battle with a rare autoimmune disease. Her husband, Martinez, Martinez's husband, and other family members stepped forward to be tested as possible donors. None of them were matches.

"There were a lot of setbacks ... and so I ended up in dialysis," said Silvas, 45, who lives in San Antonio. "I had given up hope."

Silvas and Martinez agreed to sign up for the kidney donor-exchange program. Just weeks later, Martinez got the call that the hospital wanted to perform a triple exchange. When Martinez called Silvas with the news, Silvas was incredulous.

"I started crying and couldn't talk," Silvas said. "Finally, I said, ‘Are you sure? Tell me again!'"

Just a few miles away from Martinez, another woman had begun to despair.

De La Torre had spent two years on dialysis after her kidneys failed because of thyroid problems. She felt tired and sick all the time, and when a doctor said she'd probably have to be on dialysis for life, she erupted into tears.

"I really thought there was no hope for me," she said.

Victor De La Torre, her son, had volunteered to be a donor, but wasn't compatible. Mother and son both were added to the exchange list.

Then the call came.

"I was so glad, so glad," De La Torre said of the news that she had a match.

On July 11, the donors and recipients underwent surgery. Within a week, De La Torre and Silvas were released from the hospital, and both their lives changed. They no longer have to undergo lengthy, exhausting dialysis treatments, and both feel like they have their lives back, they said.

"Now that I can compare, I can see that I was really sick, and just didn't realize it," said Silvas, who is now attending nursing school. "I can concentrate better, I feel healthy, I feel strong."

And both Silvas and De La Torre are grateful to the donors who participated.

"Words just can't describe it," Silvas said.

After the surgery, Martinez, the donor, and De La Torre, the recipient, learned they lived within miles of each other.

"My kidney's just down the street!" Martinez said with a laugh.

The two have talked on the phone several times and plan to see each other regularly, they said.

Bingaman, the doctor, hopes the kidney-exchange program will give hope to more patients in need of transplants.

"For people who have been told in the past that there's no (kidney) match, that they have to wait, there's now hope for them," he said.