Cousin’s donation results in new kidney for Washington recipient
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, first cousins MaryAnn Derbis and Jack Means last got together in person during a family reunion in July 2019.
“It was heartbreaking to see him at the reunion,” Derbis recalled. “Even though Jack was saying, ‘I’m fine and all is well,’ we could see it in his face and everything that he wasn’t fine. I went home and I thought, I have to do something to help him.”
On Tuesday, they met for breakfast at a Peters Township residence for their own personal reunion, six months after Means received a kidney transplant as a result of his cousin’s organ donation.
“Jack’s a pretty special person. He has been giving and doing for people his whole life,” Derbis said. “I knew that options as far as being a direct match were really running low. I prayed about it and pretty much put it in God’s hands, and I thought, I’m going to do this.”
Means, who lives in Washington, was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2012 and started undergoing dialysis six year later. Around that time, his friend Doug Bush offered to donate a kidney, but he wound up being rejected because of a pre-existing condition.
Several other potential donors were deemed unsuitable, as well, before Derbis made her offer.
“Initially, it came back that she was almost a perfect match,” Means said. “But after some more in-depth testing, they decided that she wasn’t a perfect match. So they asked her if she’s be willing to go into a swap program, where she would give her kidney to somebody else, and I’d get somebody else’s kidney.
“MaryAnn said, ‘Yeah, as long as Jack gets a kidney out of it.'”
On Sept. 18, he received his new organ through a procedure at UPMC’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, and he learned that the donor is a 46-year-old Chicago man. By reciprocal arrangement, Derbis donated her kidney Nov. 13 to a male, of an unknown age, also from the Chicago area.
“It was Friday the 13th, but I’m not superstitious,” she said. “It was a good day for me. Everything went well.”
Half a year after his surgery, her cousin is able to provide a positive update.
“I’m doing great. I go weekly for blood work. They just recently changed it to every two weeks, and my numbers are all great. I am taking a massive amount of pills, which is kind of expected,” Means said about his anti-rejection medication.
With April approaching as National Donate Life Month, Derbis wants to reassure potential donors about what they can expect from medical professionals.
“They make sure you’re in 100% good health before they would even consider doing the surgery,” the Butler County resident said. “They say that almost immediately, the remaining kidney picks up for both of them as far as the workload. They encourage a lot of walking post-op, as soon as you can,” plus drinking plenty of fluids, primarily water.
Means also is eager to share his story.
“The other MaryAnns of the world need to know what good they can do for people like me,” he said. “I think about the people who were in the dialysis chairs next to me at the center, and quite frankly, I saw one every couple of months was passing away. They have no hope. And I was in that same boat. If I’d have been there another three or four months, I’m not sure I’d be on this planet today.”
During his illness and through his surgery, Means was on an extensive series of prayer chains.
“I had churches in southern Florida, North Carolina, India, Pakistan, all over the world,” he said. “And when MaryAnn went in for surgery, we transferred all of those people over to MaryAnn.”
Both of the cousins have received their pair of vaccine inoculations against COVID-19, and they are looking forward to future events, including an already-scheduled trip to Florida in 2022.
“We’re headed to the Keys,” Means said. “We’ve rented a big house, and our families are going to get together.”
And if all continues to go well, when he tells everyone he’s fine, he really will be.