NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Patricia Menno-Coveney of Mystic had been thinking for about 10 years about donating one of her kidneys, after hearing about a fellow parishioner in St. Patrick Church restored to health after receiving a kidney from her cousin.
“It just intrigued me. Then I saw an appeal in the local Catholic paper, and I knew of a friend who needed a kidney, so I got the blood test,” said Menno-Coveney, 61, a library teacher at John B. Stanton Network Elementary School in Norwich. “It turned out I was a match for him.”
When her friend’s circumstances changed and he was no longer eligible for a donation, she was asked whether she would still be willing to donate to a stranger.
“I said, ’Sure,’” she recalled. “I was at a certain age when it just seemed like a good time to make a go of it.” She and her husband, Stephen, a “big supporter” of her altruism, are the parents of four children.
Her decision, it turns out, spurred a chain reaction of donations that resulted in four Connecticut women donating their kidneys to four men, all on March 3 at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
“I’m glad it spurred others to become donors,” Menno-Coveney said. “But the real heroes are the ones who’ve been suffering.”
Menno-Coveney’s kidney went to David Rennie of Shelton. His wife, Margaret, decided to donate her kidney, which went to Raymond Murphy of Old Saybrook. Murphy’s wife, Sylvie, gave her kidney to Mario Garcia of New Haven, and his wife, Hilary Grant, made the fourth gift, sending her kidney to Edward Brakoniecki of Stamford. He had been on the waiting list for a donation for five years.
“This series of living donor kidney transplants represents the largest internal kidney transplant exchange performed in Connecticut,” said Dr. David Mulligan, director of Yale-New Haven Transplant Center, who spoke at a press conference Thursday at the hospital.
Dr. Sanjay Kilkarni, director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program at Yale-New Haven, said the multiple donations highlight both the success of organ transplants and the need for more people to become donors. Across the country, about 100,000 people are currently waiting for kidney donations, he said, showing that the need is not being filled by organs from deceased donors. The average wait time for a kidney is five years.
“We need more living donors,” he said. “They can make a huge impact. Here we have four people removed from the list, and another four people are moved up.”
Also significant, he said, is the relatively quick recovery time.
“They all had the surgery last Tuesday,” he noted. “It’s done laparoscopically, so it’s minimally invasive.”
Menno-Coveney said she was in the hospital for two days, and other than some lingering soreness, feels fine.
“I’m getting along fine with one kidney,” she said.
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