There are always many reasons to give thanks this time of the year. Newtown resident Fred Ferris has been grateful, the past two Thanksgivings, for the gift of dialysis.

“I was always grateful for dialysis, because it allowed me to live,” Mr Ferris said. Diagnosed in 2010 with stage four kidney disease, related to type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, and on the national list for a kidney transplant since 2013, he thought then that he was “in for the long haul.”

That wait, which he said, on average, is more than three years for the more than 100,000 people in the United States in need of a kidney transplant, came to an end Tuesday, November 10, when a Manchester woman underwent surgery, donating a healthy kidney to Mr Ferris.

It was the end of more than two years of three weekly visits, four hours at a time, to the Danbury DaVita Dialysis Center, a carefully monitored intake of liquids and foods, and the beginning of a renewed life for the Robin Hill Road resident.

Within hours after Beth Mix, a youth service coordinator with the Manchester Youth Service Bureau, braved the surgeon’s knife, one of her kidneys was changing Mr Ferris’s life.

“The doctors said that the kidney started working on the operating table,” he said. Three hours after surgery, he was able to take a clear diet, “and then anything that’s in a normal diabetic diet,” Mr Ferris said.

Visiting with The Newtown Bee on Tuesday, November 24, Mr Ferris sipped from a large cup of ice water. It is amazing, he said, to not have to monitor every bit of liquid he takes in. As a matter of fact, his doctors have asked him to drink 90 ounces of water each day, three-fold the daily amount of liquids from all foods and beverages his diet could have included just two weeks earlier.

As part of the national “paired exchange” kidney program, in which a living donor is screened as a match for someone he or she knows, Mr Ferris was not able to use the kidney a friend offered last year. But she opted into the paired exchange program, offering her kidney to someone else. His paired exchange, however, must wait until he finds a match and is scheduled for a transplant.

“It’s like a trade of kidneys,” he explained, with a chain of healthy kidneys waiting for the right person.

Because his blood type is a rare O negative, and because in 2013 he had had a blood transfusion that put antibodies in his bloodstream, making him more susceptible to a transplant rejection, he thought he would be on the waiting list for a long time.

On October 14, Mr Ferris found out that Ms Mix was a match. It was serendipitous that her kidney became available to him, said Mr Ferris. Had she been able to get through to Hartford Hospital, closer to her home, when reaching out to donate, the kidney most likely would have gone to someone else. As it was, that hospital’s computers were down the day Ms Mix started the process of donating a kidney, so she called Yale-New Haven Hospital, where Mr Ferris is a patient.

‘I Could Do That’

Ms Mix has no reason other than “I could” for becoming a kidney donor, she said in a phone interview, November 24.

“Over the summer, I heard an article on Planet Money, on NPR [National Public Radio],” Ms Mix said, “that the supply and demand can’t handle the organ need. I thought, ‘I have two kidneys. I could do that.’” Her husband and two children were on board, she said, so as fall approached she decided to follow up on the decision.

“They got very excited,” she said of Yale-New Haven’s response when she offered to donate a kidney. Meetings with doctors, surgeons, and a psychiatrist were scheduled, an advocate was assigned to her, and a battery of tests taking more than two days followed. Ms Mix was not surprised to find that she passed.

“I’m in excellent health, and my parents are in good health. It seemed like the right time,” she said. All she asked was that her kidney go where it would be best used. Leading up to the surgery, Ms Mix said, was just one thought: “There’s a person out there right now who is very sick, and they’re going to get better.”

That turned out to be Mr Ferris. Successful surgeries on both were completed and two days later, Ms Mix returned home. It is only by chance that the donor and recipient have met.

Waiting with her husband for a follow-up exam the Monday following surgery, another woman in the waiting area overheard the conversation between Ms Mix and her husband.

“I think my son is your recipient,” the incredulous woman said. She was Kathy Ferris, Fred Ferris's mother.

“Then Fred came out of the exam room, and we met. It was just chance. I didn’t ever feel it was necessary to meet him; but it was gratifying to hear how he could drink what he wanted now, and,” Ms Mix laughed, “to know my kidney is reading The Roosevelts.”

Mr Ferris was thrilled to meet his donor. “Beth is so genuine. The most selfless people are those who think nothing of what they do. But to me, it was everything,” he said.

Ms Mix is gratified to know that her donation has improved not only Mr Ferris’s life, but the life of a young child, as well. When the surgeries were scheduled between herself and Mr Ferris, his paired exchange was also able to schedule a donation.

“That kidney went to a little 3-year-old boy who was born with a kidney condition,” Mr Ferris said.

“That was lovely,” Ms Mix said. “I found out it’s very important for babies in need of kidney to get one, as they can’t grow properly otherwise,” she said.

Mr Ferris will need to be cautious in the immediate future. His immune system is compromised by the transplant, making him vulnerable to common infections. An employee of United Health Care in Shelton, he will be working from home until February, he said, when he should once again be able to mingle without fear of getting sick. Regular checkups will ensure that the kidney disease that shut down his own kidneys does not compromise his new kidney, as well.

A kidney transplant is not a cure, but a transplant from a living donor is the best treatment available, said Mr Ferris.

Paying It Forward

He is hopeful that his story will inspire others to consider becoming part of the paired exchange program, or as Ms Mix did, to donate a healthy kidney to someone in need.

“The only reason I knew about [the need for kidney donors] is because I heard a news story,” Ms Mix said. “It’s important to share, so that others know.”

“Most paired exchange programs start with a random donor,” Mr Ferris pointed out. Being involved in the paired exchange program made a big difference in his life, and he plans to stay involved. He has signed up as an advocate for the American Kidney Fund, and hopes to become a speaker for that organization. With a healthy heart, liver, lungs, and most other organs, he is also an organ donor, knowing that when he passes away, he can pay forward the new life he has been given.

“Won’t that be nice?” was Ms Mix’s thought of how her kidney could change a life, as she headed into surgery. “And,” she said, “it is.”

There is so much for which to be grateful, Mr Ferris said. “Every day is better than the last,” he said.

When he sits down to the Thanksgiving table on Thursday, he will be thankful for the life returned to him through the generosity of a stranger, and for the little things, as well. After so many years on a restricted diet, “I’m looking forward to eating chestnut stuffing,” he admitted, “and lots of mashed potatoes.”

To find out more about the paired exchange (Kidney Paired Donation) or to become an organ donor, visit unos.org. Educational material about kidney disease can be found at kidneyfoundation.org. For information on financial assistance for a kidney transplant (Mr Ferris’s insurance covered costs for both donors, in this instance), visit kidneyfund.org.