LEVANT, Maine — Mary Tower Pettegrow doesn’t miss the kidney she gave to save the life of her friend Debra Gunn in August. Instead, the experience has turned both women into enthusiastic advocates for living organ donation.
When Gunn, 50, of Holden was told in June 2014 that she needed a kidney transplant, she wasn’t very worried. She has an identical twin sister, Barbara Cookson, who also lives in Holden.
Because their DNA is the same, Gunn would never have had to worry about organ rejection.
Even though she showed no symptoms, Cookson was rejected as a possible donor because she had some of the genetic markers for Alport syndrome, the disease that was causing Gunn’s kidneys to fail.
Alport syndrome is an inherited disease that primarily affects the glomeruli, the tiny tufts of capillaries in the kidneys that filter wastes from the blood, according to information on the National Kidney Foundation’s website. The disease was first described by an English doctor named A. Cecil Alport. It causes gene mutations that affect type IV collagen, a protein that is important to the normal structure and function of glomeruli.
Gunn’s other relatives also weren’t able to donate a kidney for various reasons.
When Gunn relayed the news to her friend, Pettegrow, 37, of Levant that her sister wouldn’t be able to give her a kidney, Pettegrow asked one question: “Who do I call to see if I’m a match?”
“We knew we had the same blood type, so we thought it was possible I might be a match,” Pettegrow said Saturday. “I started testing in March. We found out I was good to go in June. We had the surgery [at Maine Medical Center in Portland] on Aug. 18.”
When the pair showed up at 6:30 a.m. that day for surgery, Pettegrow sported a T-shirt that read, “I say goodbye.” Gunn wore one that read, “I say hello.”
Neither woman had had surgery before.
The kidney Pettegrow donated began functioning perfectly as soon as it “was hooked up,” Gunn said Saturday. “Mary was up and walking laps around the nurses’ station by 3:30 p.m. I had expected to feel better but was nauseous from the [anti-rejection] meds, but my family all said how much healthier my complexion was.”
Gunn was released from the hospital three days after the surgery. Pettegrow went home after two. Gunn’s insurance covered the cost of Pettegrow’s surgery.
The women first met about four years ago at a gym where Gunn was a personal trainer. Seven weeks before surgery, Gunn opened her own gym, Time for Results Fitness, in Brewer. Pettegrow, who works for the Bangor law firm Rudman Winchell, now works out at Gunn’s gym.
Gunn said she returned to running her business after six weeks. Pettegrow went back to work after five weeks.
“I’m still shocked at how easy this was for me,” Pettegrow said Saturday, wearing a sweatshirt that read: “Recycle yourself. Become an organ donor.”
“I think there’s a stigma about giving up an organ. I literally don’t feel any different than I did before. I think if people realized how easy it is, more people would get tested and do it,” she said.
The friends have joined forces to help East Machias native Michelle Holmes Abell, 48, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, find a living donor. Abell, whose parents, Bud and Betty Holmes, still live in Washington County, suffers from chronic kidney failure.
Her brother, Paul Holmes, 45, of Machiasport, has had two kidney transplants from family members. Abell went on the transplant list in August.
Pettegrow had never met Abell before Saturday but knew her brother growing up in the Machias area.
Abell is one of more than 101,000 people waiting for kidney transplants in the United States, according to the National Kidney Foundation. The median wait time for an individual’s first transplant is 3.6 years, and a dozen people die each day waiting for a donor, according to the foundation’s statistics.
While twice as many kidney transplants come from cadavers rather than live donors, a kidney from a live donor may function twice as long as one donated after a person has died, Gunn said.
“If people understood they can save another human being, they’d feel the same way I do,” Pettegrow said. “It’s important for me to get people to think about it. Our mission now is to find a donor for Michelle.”
People wishing to test to see if they are a match for Michelle Abell should call the Massachusetts General Donor Team at 617-643-7193. People who have general questions about living organ donation, should contact Roxanne Taylor at the Maine Transplant Program at Maine Medical Center in Portland at 207-662-7185.