Transplant Doctor from Dearborn Wants More Kidneys

Dr. Shakir Hussein knows firsthand the power of organ donation.

And that's why the Dearborn resident is urging people to sign up to "give the gift of life."

The transplant surgeon at Detroit Medical Center's Harper University Hospital said the need for organs is extremely high across the country and in Michigan.

While his focus is kidney transplants - there are some 2,500 plus residents waiting for one - Michiganders are also on waiting lists for livers, lungs, hearts, pancreases and intestines. There currently 3,135 people in need of organs, according to Michigan.gov.

In 2011, 792 people received organs. That was slightly up from 786 in 2010, but down from 863 in 2009, according to Gift of Life Michigan.

Hussein said it's crucial to spread the word about the need and not just during April, which is designated as organ donation awareness month.

"Some donors are able to save eight lives - from one person," he said. "Their death did not go in vain. Even after their death, they were able to save lives."

Hussein also reminds that living donors are in demand as well.

A life saved

Andrea Langhor, a mother of five and a grandmother to five, said she is fortunate enough to have had her life saved by a 17-year-old girl who died from a brain aneurysm.

After suffering for many years from a genetic kidney disease, Langhor, a Brighton resident, was told by her doctors in September of 2009 that she would have to start dialysis until she was able to receive a kidney transplant.

It was disheartening news for the then 51-year-old grandmother of five who had watched her own father receive dialysis treatments for the same polycystic kidney disease and knew what her future could look like.

“You’re just existing,” Langhor, now 55, said. “You’re really not living on dialysis.”

Just a week later however, Langhor received “miraculous” news that after only six months on the donor registry, she was a match and would receive her life-changing transplant. She would later learn that the kidney came from a teenager.

“We were a perfect match,” Langhor said. “... (doctors) told me I had won the lottery because that’s like one in a million.”

Perfect match not needed

Hussein said the most exciting advancement in kidney organ donation is that a perfect match is no longer needed.

The good news, Hussein said, is that new technology no longer requires people to be a perfect match. He said a "paired kidney exchange" allows for a bigger pool of candidates who don't have to be a blood or antibody match.

Hoping for another miracle

After 32 years with a transplanted kidney, Farmington Hills resident Deborah Smith is once again waiting for a phone call that will save her life. 

"Now, they say the list can be anywhere from two to five years," Smith said. "There's more demand and less supply."

Smith, who was diagnosed at 27 with kidney failure, has already undergone two transplant surgeries. The first kidney only worked for a few days before it had to be removed, and it took two years to find another one. Since then, she has spent 32 years free from dialysis, a painstaking procedure that cleans the blood until a donor organ is found. But now her kidney is failing again - and she needs a new one.

Hussein said he knows it's a tough decision to decide to become an organ donation and that while being a donor "is psychologically and physically difficult, it really is a precious gift, Hussein said. "It saves lives."

But he gives this warning for anyone thinking about adding their name to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.

"Having the red heart on the driver's license is one thing," Hussein said, referring to the universal symbol for organ donors. He said it is also important for people to share their wishes to donate with their families so that that loved ones understand and accept this decision before the time comes to execute it.