After surgery, Nucci ‘resting comfortably’

Received kidney from family friend yesterday

Former Boston City Councilor John Nucci’s kidney transplant went well for both the donor and the grateful recipient.

“He’s resting comfortably,” said Charlie Kalell, Nucci’s friend. He added the surgery ended yesterday afternoon and was a success.

Nucci, 66, of East Boston received the kidney he needed from family friend Kerri Abrams yesterday morning.

Abrams, 37, of Arlington volunteered to donate a kidney to Nucci, who was suffering from genetic polycystic kidney disease.

Nucci’s search for a new kidney has put a spotlight on donations, with one leading expert saying there’s room for improvement — especially if some of the small expenses incurred along the way were paid for.

“I think that could turn the needle a little bit,” said Dr. Eliot Heher, the medical director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s kidney donor team.

Heher, who said organ donations are going up, said he would like to see hospitals or insurers be able to ease the process for donors.

Right now the medical procedure is paid for by the recipient’s insurance, but the donors have to shoulder all the other myriad headaches such as the lost work time, travel costs and even parking at the hospital.

The number of organ donors has increased somewhat in recent years, but it’s for a sad reason: More young people are dying.

“It’s because of the opiate epidemic,” Heher said.

The increase in donors of late has not kept pace with the number of people who are looking for kidneys, however. Medical advances over the past two decades have led to doctors recommending transplants more often.

Sean Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for New England Donor Services, said Massachusetts has seen an increase in deceased organ donors over the past few years. Last year, doctors transplanted organs from 181 people. That’s up from 177 in 2016 and 163 in 2015, he said.

Fitzpatrick said 3,874 people in Massachusetts are awaiting organ transplants of some sort, including 2,811 who need a kidney.

Just over half of people in Massachusetts with driver’s licenses are registered as donors.

Nucci has said he plans to advocate for ways of getting more people to donate once he recovers.

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY NICOLAUS CZARNECKI NEWSWORTHY: Kerri Abrams, a family friend of John Nucci who gave him one of her kidneys yesterday, first heard of the former Boston city councilor’s need for an organ transplant by reading an article in the Boston Herald.