McMichael attended youth conferences through his church, where the seeds were planted to do missionary work. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in psychology and served as a Peace Corps worker and independent missionary in Honduras before becoming a missionary for Presbyterian Church USA in 1994 and moving to Romania to work with orphans and abandoned, chronically ill children. Advertisement Two years later, he transferred to Croatia, where he set up psychosocial programs for hospitalized children and camps for Croatian children with chronic ailments. At the same time, his increasingly diseased and bloated kidneys were causing him pain, fatigue, and elevated blood pressure. At 35, he learned his kidney function was below normal. He returned home in 2005 and in early 2007 for surgery to drain the cysts and repair hernias. With kidney function below 20 percent, he went on the national organ donor list, which has an average wait time of two and a half to three years. By late spring 2007, declining health forced him home from Croatia indefinitely. Since his adopted mother had moved out of state, church members took him in. Thinking he was a year and a half to two years from dialysis, McMichael did volunteer work for his church while waiting for a new kidney. He hoped for one from a live donor, which eliminates transplant delay and lessens the possibility of organ trauma.
Former Presbyterian missionary and Honduras RPCV Brett McMichael always had faith that God would answer his prayers for a life-saving kidney
Donated kidney gives new life
By BARBARA S. ROTHSCHILD • Courier-Post Staff •
June 8, 2009
Former Presbyterian missionary Brett McMichael always had faith that God would answer his prayers -- and those of his fellow parishioners at the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbury Heights -- for a life-saving kidney.
He just didn't realize that when it finally happened, it would be a miracle that would arrive like they do in the movies.
On May 20, McMichael, 42 -- who'd been on dialysis for a year and a half -- received a cadaver kidney transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The Courier-Post first wrote about McMichael and his illness in July 2007.
"All of a sudden, I'm future-oriented rather than day-to-day-oriented," said McMichael, who has attended the Woodbury Heights church since second grade.
The donor kidney, from a male in his mid-20s, was directed to him. According to McMichael and his pastor, the Rev. John Shedwick, the donor was a bicyclist killed in a collision with a car. His closest family members, who live next door to McMichael's uncle in Blackwood, quickly relayed the information to the donor network.
"We were praying that a donor would be found," Shedwick said. He and his wife, Dottie, spent the day of McMichael's surgery at HUP. The church's prayer chain was galvanized into action the morning of the surgery.
"We have to remember there is a family that lost a son and a brother. But it's been a celebration, too. How great the Lord's timing was. Now, Brett can get on with his life," Shedwick said.
The donor's family members did not respond to efforts to reach them for this article.
McMichael was 17 when diagnosed with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disease that affects 600,000 Americans and 12.5 million children and adults worldwide.
Dialysis and transplant are the only treatment or cure for the condition, which causes fluid-filled cysts to grow and multiply on the kidneys, with kidney failure in half the cases.
Because he is adopted, McMichael had no blood family members to test should transplant become imminent. But at 17, he thought time was on his side, since he was not expected to lose kidney function until his late 30s.
McMichael attended youth conferences through his church, where the seeds were planted to do missionary work. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in psychology and served as a Peace Corps worker and independent missionary in Honduras before becoming a missionary for Presbyterian Church USA in 1994 and moving to Romania to work with orphans and abandoned, chronically ill children.
Advertisement
Two years later, he transferred to Croatia, where he set up psychosocial programs for hospitalized children and camps for Croatian children with chronic ailments.
At the same time, his increasingly diseased and bloated kidneys were causing him pain, fatigue, and elevated blood pressure. At 35, he learned his kidney function was below normal.
He returned home in 2005 and in early 2007 for surgery to drain the cysts and repair hernias. With kidney function below 20 percent, he went on the national organ donor list, which has an average wait time of two and a half to three years.
By late spring 2007, declining health forced him home from Croatia indefinitely.
Since his adopted mother had moved out of state, church members took him in. Thinking he was a year and a half to two years from dialysis, McMichael did volunteer work for his church while waiting for a new kidney. He hoped for one from a live donor, which eliminates transplant delay and lessens the possibility of organ trauma.
It looked like a fellow church member and former Woodbury Heights schoolmate would be a match, but he was disqualified for medical reasons. Two other potential donors also failed to get medical approval.
In December 2007 -- when McMichael had been home barely seven months -- his kidney function had deteriorated so much that he had to go on dialysis. The following month, with his kidneys the size of footballs, he had surgery to remove them.
Life became centered around dialysis three times a week at Kennedy Memorial Hospital, Washington Township. There were raised hopes when a perfect-match cadaver kidney was found in May 2008, but they were dashed when it went to someone else.
(3 of 3)
After another year of waiting, McMichael got the call on May 19 that a kidney might be available. A few hours later, HUP called to say the kidney was being tested.
Advertisement
At 1:30 a.m., he got the word that it was a good match, but had been inactive longer than advised. Three hours later, he got another call, this time from the hospital's transplant coordinator to say the kidney was working well.
McMichael called church members Chuck and Joyce Elliott of Oak Valley, who drove him to the hospital before dawn. By 10:30 a.m., he was in surgery. Once the kidney was attached in McMichael's lower abdomen during the three-hour procedure, it plumped up and began functioning immediately.
"He got a great kidney. It worked right away, with no complications. He has an excellent prognosis and the kidney should last a long time," said Dr. Peter Abt, who performed the surgery.
Abt said the polycystic disease should not reoccur on the new kidney or elsewhere. He added that with a relatively short period on dialysis and the new kidney, McMichael will have a longer survival rate and increased life span.
"He should be able to resume a normal life and do all the things it is difficult to do when you're on dialysis," Abt said.
McMichael will remain on immunosuppressants to prevent the risk of organ rejection. Released from HUP on May 24, he is staying with the Elliotts while he recuperates. For the first month following surgery, there are frequent visits to HUP for checkups and blood work. Barring complications, the visits to HUP will taper off to once a year, with checkups at a local nephrologist.
While waiting for a kidney, McMichael became a church elder, helping at nursery school and with the youth group. He also joined HUP's transplant support group.
With the energy he expects to return soon, McMichael plans to travel to other local churches to share his story and encourage organ donation.
He'd also like to establish psychosocial support for adults with chronic illness, particularly dialysis patients.
"Virtually no dialysis center offers support groups for its patients, who are cut off from their peers because of the long treatments. I'd like to become a patient advocate for younger adults with chronic illness, some of whom get very depressed," he said.
McMichael is not sure he'll resume missionary work, but intends to start traveling around the United States in the fall and hopes to visit Croatia next spring.
"I'm not sure whether I will live overseas again. It will depend on where God needs me," he said.
Reach Barbara S. Rothschild at (856) 486-2416 or barothschild@camden.gannett.com
