BIRCH ISLAND—It was the kind of phone call everyone dreads. Andrea McGregor of Birch Island picked up the phone last March to find her brother Aaron Sunday on the line with some very bad news.
“My brother called me very upset,” she recalled. “He had just heard from his doctor who told him that his kidney function was very low.”
Years of diabetes and blood pressure medication had taken its toll on the father of two adult children and his kidneys were beginning to fail, but a transplant was not yet in the cards. “There were some other things they wanted to try first,” she recalled. “But I told him that if it went that route I would be willing to donate one of mine.”
Just like that? “Yeah, just like that,” she confirmed. There wasn’t the slightest hesitation.
“He said ‘you should talk to your husband’ but I told him it was my decision,” she said. “Of course I told him, but it was my decision.”
When she told her husband, Ms. McGregor was not taken by surprise by his reaction. “He was and has been my greatest supporter,” she said. “He has been by my side on this every step of the way.”
Aaron’s doctors tried a number of therapies first, but eventually he wound up on dialysis.
“There was nothing they could do,” she said.
And so began a battery of tests and questionnaires.
“We started the ball rolling,” said Ms. McGregor, who originally hails from Christian Island. “There were tests and surveys that I had to fill out. Lots of questionnaires.” Taking the step of donating a kidney is a major decision and there are a lot of questions to determine the donor’s health, both mental and physical. “They go really deep,” she said.
Then there were batteries of tests to ensure that the kidney in question had a good chance of making it in its new home. “There were a lot of tests, but they were very accommodating,” said Ms. McGregor. “A lot of the tests I could do right here, at the hospital in Little Current.”
When the dust had settled on the tests, everything was determined to be a go.
This was a very big life step she was contemplating—so was it scary? “No, it wasn’t,” she said. “I really didn’t get nervous until the day of the surgery.”
But that lack of fear doesn’t mean that she didn’t take action to ensure the best possible outcome.
“I was already pretty physically active, but I began prepping my body and mind to be in a healthy state,” she said. Ms. McGregor began a daily regimen of prayer and exercise.
“I got the word in mid-September that the surgery would take place in mid-October,” she said. “In about four weeks we would travel to St. Michael’s in Toronto for the operations.”
In the meantime, Ms. McGregor’s brother had a heavy regimen of his own. “He had to go off work full time,” she said. Three times a week he had to go into the hospital for an all-day session of dialysis. “It was literally all day,” she said. “It had quite an impact on his life.”
For her brother’s sons it was a difficult time. Although they are both now adults, one 20 and the other 19, they were very concerned about their father.
“The older son had just joined the US marines and is posted in Florida,” said Ms. McGregor. “It was very hard for them because they wanted to be there for their dad.”
The day of the surgery began very early, with both siblings heading into St. Michael’s Hospital for pre-op. It was the start of a very long day, particularly for Ms. McGregor.
“We actually had two surgeons at the beginning,” she said. But an emergency took her brother’s surgeon away at the eleventh hour. “So my surgeon became his surgeon too.”
Having the same surgeon handle both operations is quite rare. “Odds of that happening like that are pretty slim,” noted Ms. McGregor.
Her Facebook post gives a good insight into where her head was at as Ms. McGregor headed out to the hospital.
“Today is the day I’ll give my brother the gift of a lifetime,” she posted. “My kidney (left one to be exact) will be transferred into his body. No words of thank you are needed, I’m not a hero and I am certainly not the best sister. I know my other siblings would do this if they could (and I would do it for them) and I know others have done this surgery before me. I just ask for your thoughts and prayers today my friends and family. XO”
Ms. McGregor, a mother of four children ranging from 23 to 11 years of age, admits that her children were frightened at first, but they quickly came around. “They knew why I was doing it and they were pretty proud.”
The two surgeries made for a very long day for the surgeon. “My surgery was longer than Aaron’s,” she noted. “His was only 2.5 hours, mine was 4.5 hours. I think it was because they needed to get at my kidney and move around all the organs.”
Most of her surgery was done laparoscopicly, which is a very non-invasive modern procedure performed through a very small incision. “The kidney itself is actually quite small,” she said. “It is only about five ounces.” So there were only a couple of tiny holes and a three-inch incision when all was said and done.
“They filled my body up with CO2 and moved everything out of the way,” she said. In the end, her surgery took more out of her than her brother’s did him. “He was up and walking around that evening,” she said. “I was sore for a little while longer than that.”
The news was good right away.
“I could tell that things were working just from looking at him,” she said. “His colour was so much better.” Her brother’s room was just two doors down from her own in the hospital.
Following the surgeries came a battery of tests, and each milestone brought another ray of sunshine into their lives. At first the tests came fast and furious, but as time went by, the dates with the lab become further and further apart. “My brother goes down every two weeks now, in February he will be going every other month,” she said. Ms. McGregor has travelled south for a follow-up appointment and she has another coming up in January—but she is now back at work in human resources and finance at the UCCM Anishinabe Police. “I don’t feel any different,” she said. “I am back out running and I can say I am pretty much 100 percent.”
Ms. McGregor said that she has visited her kidney at its new home. “My brother said ‘I can feel your kidney’,” she said. “I put my hand on his side and I could feel it there too.”
Ms. McGregor requested that the following statement be included in this article: “On October 18, 2016 I donated my left kidney. It has been the most rewarding experience of my life! I knew right away I wanted to do this for my brother and when I told him the news, I did a lot of research thereafter.
“I encourage anyone reading this to consider giving the gift of life. It’s not for everyone, you have to make sure it’s the right decision for you, but it really is an amazing feeling to know you have helped someone you love. We are all connected when we give to others.”
Ms. McGregor refuses to accept the label of hero, “I was just happy to be able to see my brother walking around safe,” she said. We may humbly suggest that true heroes don’t get to make that decision—but The Expositor will refrain from belabouring the obvious and will let others be the judge. For our part, this was a story of a truly remarkable gift that we wanted to share with you in this, the season of giving.