Marathon organ transplant session increases awareness for organ donation

MURRAY — Karen Wright already lost two children, and she wasn't going to let a rare kidney disease take another.

"I just knew that there would be something, someday, for her," she said. "It's your daughter, you'll do whatever you need to do."

Earlier this month, after 20 years of traveling across the country to attend what she called "kidney conventions" and visiting various doctors in numerous states, her daughter Valeri Wright Zachary received a much-anticipated, yet unexpected phone call.

It was one of many phone calls the Intermountain Medical Center's transplant program made earlier this month, when they performed seven transplants in five days.

Zachary, 40, had already rejected one kidney and doctors told her that with her condition, it would be hard to find a match. She was expecting to wait at least two years, maybe even longer.

However, an organ donor had recently died from a motorcycle accident, giving Zachary, and many others, a second shot at life.

"I'd say thank you, but that's not enough," she said Wednesday. Zachary, who lives in Las Vegas, made a quick trip to Salt Lake the same night she received the phone call. She was shocked, but excited at the possibility of being able to enjoy life and travel with her husband and two children again.

She'd been on kidney dialysis — for nearly five hours, every other day — for the past 20 years.

"In Utah, we are fortunate that we have some of the highest percentages of our population signing up to be organ donors compared to anywhere in the country," said Dr. Willem Van der Werf, director of IMC's transplant program. He said they perform 150 transplants each year and end up sending a lot of usable organs elsewhere in the western states region.

But the period between March 2 and March 6, he said, was one of the busiest times he's experienced with seven separate transplants.

"It is unusual to have this many in such a short period of time," Van der Werf said.

Kristie Baker, a registered nurse and transplant coordinator for IMC, said it was "really crazy" trying to find matches, inform the patients and doctors involved and organize all of the transplants.

"We have one hour to make the final decision and let them know," she said. "We make a lot of phone calls and there are a lot of scared, nervous people."