McCandless resident answers retired priest’s plea for kidney donation

Father Tom Kredel didn’t quite say it was a miracle that he found a kidney donor after celebrating Mass at St. Alexis Church in McCandless last summer. But he is certainly grateful.

Kredel, a retired priest of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh who is suffering from kidney failure, was running out of options on finding a donor last year. He had asked his three brothers, but they were over the age limit to donate.

After Mass in August at the St. Aidan Parish church, he decided to take a chance and say something to the people gathered in the pews.

“I said, ‘If you’ve got a second, have you ever considered being a donor? The reason is I need to find a new kidney. If anyone is interested, give the rectory a call,’” said Kredel, 78.

What’s the worst that could happen?

“I thought, if you don’t ask and you don’t pursue things, you won’t ever get it,” he said. “I thought a whole lot wasn’t going to come of this.”

Someone at church that day did answer his prayers. The McCandless woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, approached Kredel with the news.

“I was just blown off the floor,” he said of his surprise.

Kredel’s living donor was tested in October and approved for surgery in January. The surgery is scheduled for Feb. 28 at Allegheny General Hospital.

The donor is married and has three children, two of whom graduated from North Allegheny and one who is a freshman there. She said she doesn’t want any attention for what she’s doing.

But when she heard Kredel’s request last August, her thought was: It won’t work out if it’s not meant to be. But she was, in fact, a very close match, and she called that a miracle.

“I’m at such peace with this that I think it’s just something that I’m supposed to do,” she said.

Dr. Jennifer Carpenter, surgical director of the living donor kidney transplant program at Allegheny Health Network, called it “a huge relief” to have someone donate a living kidney.

The average waiting list for a kidney donation is five years, and the eligibility of a person who is on a five -year waiting list may change by the time a kidney becomes available, she said. If someone is able to find a living donor on his or her own, or if someone volunteers, it helps the process and the patient.

And doctors are better able to assess the health of the organ with living donors, Carpenter said.

A kidney from a deceased person has an average expectancy of about 10 to 12 years. A living kidney donation has a 15- to 20-year success.

“I’ve seen them last up to 30 years,” Carpenter said.

For those who are consdering a donation, such as for kidneys, the process has become much less invasive. Doctors are able to remove a kidney through several small incisions, including using advanced robotic technology to perform the precise surgery, according to Carpenter.

“It’s so much better than it was 20 or 30 years ago,” she said.

There’s typically a lot less pain or wound complication, and donors can return to work and their everyday lives faster, Carpenter said.

She found that many people don’t even realize they can donate a kidney.

“Our research shows that donors live long, healthy, completely normal lives,” she said. “There’s always potential for complications, but we’re very selective on who can be a donor.”

A living donor’s surgery is covered by Medicare or the recipient’s insurance, Carpenter said, and there are programs that help with the process, such as the National Kidney Foundation. Donors can be reimbursed for lodging, lost wages and other related costs.

Overall, Carpenter said it’s difficult for a person to ask for an organ donation.

“They don’t want to admit they need help and ask for it. If we can get over that, fear of asking those we love and others in our community to donate organs, a lot more people may come forward,” she said.

Kredel, a New Brighton native who lives at St. John Vianney Manor, on the campus of St. Paul’s Seminary in East Carnegie, said he’s just happy he has this second chance. And perhaps he’ll go back to biking.

“God is so good. I said to (the donor), ‘How can I ever thank you?’ And she said, ‘none needed.’ There is nothing that I can do that to thank her for this wonderful gift to me,” Kredel said.

A Living Donor FAQ page is available through www.ahn.org.