Son donates kidney to help give mom gift of life

At 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, 1975, Bonnie Blake was in the hospital giving birth to her only biological son.

Exactly 34 years later, on the same date and at that same time, the mother and son were again in the hospital.

This time the son was the one giving the gift of life.

McAllen resident Bonnie Blake, 57, was in need of a second kidney transplant. Her son, Andrew Blake, 34, also of McAllen, donated one of his to her last week. The surgery took place on his birthday and began at the exact time of his birth.

"It’s a Christmas gift," said Bonnie, who is a bit sore but otherwise feels full of energy after being so ill before the operation that she had to receive dialysis treatment.

"I think probably it’s a gift that will keep on giving for a long time," she said. "Every birthday and every Christmas will be like a gift that he gave me all over again."

The surgery took place at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison, Wis. — Bonnie had decided to return to the facility where she got her first transplant in 1993.

Back then, her doctor in Corpus Christi, where she was living at the time, directed her to the three facilities in Wisconsin and Minnesota boasting the highest success rates in the nation. She opted for Wisconsin in part because she had a lot of family there.

Sixteen years later, the organ transplant landscape has changed. The vast majority of states now have several transplant programs, but Bonnie opted to return to the one that was tried and true for her.

Though she has seven children, Andrew is Bonnie’s only biological child. The two of them share a strong bond, she said with tears in her eyes.

"He himself is a miracle," the mother said. Thirty-four years ago she went through a high-risk pregnancy due to her diabetes.

"It is kind of amazing," she said. "That he can give back life so I can keep going."

Had she not received a kidney from her son, Bonnie likely would have had to wait five to seven years for a transplant. The wait is shorter — three to five years — for patients who haven’t developed kidney-attacking antibodies, which can occur due to pregnancy, blood transfusions or prior transplants.

Bonnie developed the antibodies in her blood after the first transplant, making it more difficult for her to find a matched donor, said Dr. Tony D’Alessandro, a transplant surgeon at UW Hospital.

But with newer medication and technology, the doctor was able to clean up her blood so that Bonnie’s body would accept her son’s kidney, the doctor said. So far, the tactic has worked.

UW Hospital performs an average of 500 transplants a year, of which just more than 300 are kidney transplants. Only 10-15 percent of D’Alessandro’s patients are from out of the state.

The hospital released Andrew on Sunday. Bonnie was discharged on Monday. Both are doing fine, and soon the duo will be back in the Rio Grande Valley with Bonnie expecting to return in late January.

Mother and son both work for Creative Education Institute, a software provider for school districts here in the Valley.

Andrew works for the sales department, while Bonnie works in the service department, helping teachers in McAllen, Edinburg and Rio Grande City to use the software successfully.

Even with one kidney, Andrew can still lead a normal life — though he will have to be careful to try to stay in good health.

"They say everything is going to be normal," he said during a phone interview while waiting for the hospital to release his mother.

"I just have to take good care of myself," he added. "Can’t eat a lot of tortillas down there anymore."

The future looks much brighter now for Bonnie, who just this past summer was told by her doctors that the first kidney she received — which came from a cadaver — was no longer doing its job and that she would need a second transplant.

Andrew immediately volunteered. Her sister was also ready to give up a kidney in case Andrew was not a match.

At any given time in this country, some 100,000 patients are waiting for a transplant. Most of them — 70,000 — are waiting for a kidney.

The long waiting list is largely a function of people’s willingness to have their organs harvested for donation in the event of their death.

If more people agreed to post-mortem organ donation, there would be less need to ask living family members of patients to donate, D’Alessandro said.

"We encourage people to talk of donation, that they sign their (organ donation directive on their driver’s) license and they talk to their families," he said.

The vast majority of the transplants qualify for Medicare coverage because they are less expensive than dialysis treatment, the doctor said.

Bonnie, meanwhile, is grateful for her new lease on life.

"I feel blessed," she said. "I feel God created us with two kidneys so we could donate one."