Kidney transplant successful for co-workers
WEST CHESTER » The kidney transplant operation involving a pair of co-workers at the Chester County Adult Probation, Parole, and Pre-Trial Services offices was a success, according to the staffers’ supervisor.
“Both patients are doing well, and their doctors are very pleased with the way the operation went,” said Bruce McClure on Thursday of his team members, Kelly McMinimee
and Britany Daptula.
McMinimee, who learned in 2018 that she had end-stage kidney failure, received one of Daptula’s health kidneys during the procedure on Tuesday at Lankenau Hospital in Montgomery County. McClure said the transplanted kidney is working and “fully operational.
“It’s doing its job,” he said. McClure said he texted McMinimee on Wednesday and she said she was resting comfortably, and hoping to be released from the hospital alter this week if all goes well. Daptula was scheduled to be released from Lankenau on Thursday.
“She was very positive, and thankful for everyone’s thoughts and prayers,” he said.
The two women, who sit next to one another in offices at the bail agency in the county Justice Center, are hoping to return to work soon, Daptula within a month and McMinimee in about eight weeks, said McClure.
McMinimee, who had been a diabetic for years, was diagnosed
“Both patients are doing well, and their doctors are very pleased with the way the operation went.”
— Bruce McClure, co-worker
with stage-five kidney failure faced the reality of being on dialysis continually until either she was lucky enough to find a donor for a transplant, or she died of diabetes that claimed both her father and brother.
In January 2019, McMinimee told her co-workers of her dire diagnosis, and her hopeful plans to apply for a transplant — a process that could take years as she searched for a match, either from a live donor or a deceased one. Without hesitation, Daptula volunteered to be the donor.
“It just felt right,” Daptula said of her snap decision to offer one of her kidneys to help her friend find a healthy life.
“Who would have guessed that this person sitting right next to me” would be the one to have a match, McMinimee marveled during the interview. “I get chills thinking about it. I’ve never heard of anyone getting a transplant from a colleague. It just doesn’t happen.”
There are about 16,000 kidney transplants done in the United States each year. The statistics for success are high — between 83 percent and 94 percent — and those who accept a living donor’s kidney live between 12 and 20 years afterward.
But it is no safe bet that a person suffering from kidney disease who goes on a transplant list will get one; more than 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month, according to national statistics; 13 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant. In 2014, 4,761 patients died while waiting for a kidney transplant. Another, 3,668 people became too sick to receive a kidney transplant.