Wife Donates Kidney to Ex-Husband

Jerry Sellers of Myrtle Beach, SC spent his life coaching high school teenagers.  Only months after retiring, he was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, requiring him to spend the last year on dialysis.  Fifteen hours a week for more than 52 weeks, Jerry sat in the dialysis center, hoping for a kidney donor.  That’s when his ex-wife Cindy offered him the ultimate gift — her kidney.  Cindy and Jerry have two children, Colin, 16 and Zachary, 14, and while divorced, they have remained close friends and loving parents.  Cindy refused to see the father of her children suffering and after learning that donating a kidney was a relatively minor procedure for the donor, she signed up for testing.  Cindy was a match.

Today, Cindy and Jerry came to the Medical University of South Carolina for their pre-operative work-up.  On Wednesday, MUSC transplant surgeons, Dr. Kenneth Chavin and Dr. Prabhakar Baliga will perform the surgery which will change Jerry’s life forever.  MUSC is ranked top in the nation for kidney transplant outcomes.  Cindy says she only recently realized that a donate a kidney, and be back to normal in just a short time, and hopes that sharing their story will convince others to do the same.  Stay tuned here for more updates on Cindy and Jerry over the next few weeks as well as on http://www2.counton2.com/

The Live Donor Exchange Program is also an option for those interested in donating a kidney to an unknown recipient. Through this program, the donor’s kidney goes to a patient who would come to the MUSC Transplant Center for the transplant. These exchanges can be anonymous. For more information about living kidney donation, contact livedonor@musc.edu