By Jolene Zanghi
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS — Ethel Kennon smiled as she reached for a few tissues from the box on an end table. She said she didn’t know much about her kidney donor, just that she was a woman from the area who died unexpectedly this past Christmas season.
She knew the donor’s family had to suffer the loss of a loved one during the holidays before they agreed to provide her with what she believes is the greatest gift anyone can give.
Kennon’s eyes welled up as she sat on her couch, dabbing her eyes from time to time with the balled-up tissues. She glanced out the window at her Sixth Street neighborhood and reflected on how lucky she had been to find a match. She knew she finally had control over her life for the first time in 18 years.
“I’m blessed,” Kennon said. “Very, very blessed. I didn’t expect it. I just did what I had to do to get through each day.”
In 1992, Kennon was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus, an auto-immune disease in which the immune system fights against parts
of the body it is designed to protect. That same year around Thanksgiving, she was told she had End-Stage Kidney Disease, total renal failure, and might not live to see the following year.
Kennon, 46, had been on a waiting list to receive a kidney transplant for the last five years. Having lost her only sister Vicki, who was 31 years old when she passed away from Systemic Lupus, Kennon said she was determined to fight for her life and live for her children, Kyle, 29 and Edward, 20.
“My attitude entirely was if it was meant to be I would get it,” she said. “I couldn’t dwell on the ‘what-if’s’ because I still had my boys to raise. I wanted to be able to be in my children’s lives. I kept thinking, ‘I have to live for today.’”
On Dec. 5, Kennon received a phone call from her doctor about a possible kidney match. This is a phone call she was familiar with, having had it happen four times before, each chance ending in a mismatch, she said. Two days later, she was in the recovery room at Erie County Medical Center with her new kidney.
Around 87,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant nationally, and 750 of them reside in Western New York, according to Upstate New York Transplant Services. UNYTS Public Relations Specialist Thea Tio said it’s incredible just how many people in the area are willing to give the gift of life.
“WNY has the highest consent rate in the country,” Tio said. “Ninety-two percent of the families who have lost loved ones say yes when approached about organ donation.”
UNYTS has recently signed on with ECMC and will be supplying 60 percent of the blood to WNY, after being a blood bank for only 3 years, Tio said.
Dr. Rocco Venuto, Internist, Nephrologist and Director of ECMC's Renal Services Department, said
Kennon’s case is unusual due to the amount of antibodies she had against other people.
“We were able to find her a kidney despite the fact that she had antibody titers almost 100 percent of the time that would not accept the kidney,” Venuto said. “To be able to get a kidney for somebody who has that high of an antibody titer is the rarity. That’s the mini-miracle.”
Kennon is ecstatic that for the first time in 18 years she gets to live her life and said support from her friends and family kept her going, even when she thought she didn’t have the energy.
“I have some of the best friends on the face of this earth,” she said referring to a dear friend she has dubbed as her own personal Richard Simmons, motivating her to get up and get out of the house.
Another thing Kennon is excited about is the ability to enjoy the flavor of her favorite foods once again. A side effect to renal failure and medications causes a taste disturbance among many patients, she said.
Life after receiving her new kidney has not only given Kennon a positive outlook at the beginning of a new year, it has taught her to always keep her head up, no matter what and to embrace life each and every day.
“Things will get you down, you just can’t let thing keeps you down,” she said.” It’s OK to have your down days. You can get mad at the world from time to time, just don’t take it out on the world. You really have to value life.”