The generosity of strangers
Navy veteran to have transplant today
An East Tennessee mother of two will donate a kidney this week to a man she barely knows.
A mother of two will donate a kidney this week to a man she barely knows.
Junior Hollifield, 48, who served in the Navy during Desert Storm, was diagnosed post-deployment with glomerular sclerosis, also known as FSGS. For 20 years, the Navy veteran lived with high blood pressure and declining kidney function, culminating in the need for a kidney transplant.
The Powell, Tennessee, man was approved for the operation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2012 and received his first cadaver transplant eight months later. The quick turnaround was surprising, according to his wife, Gretchen, because his B-positive blood type has an average wait time of two to five years.
The joy was short-lived, however. Junior began to suffer complications with the new kidney within a year of the transplant, and the search for a live donor began immediately.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 101,000 people are awaiting cadaver kidney transplants in the United States.
“A live donor speeds up the process rather than waiting for a cadaver kidney,” Gretchen said.
This year Junior suffered renal failure and began dialysis, a threeday-a-week process that he juggles with his job at UPS.
But a glimmer of hope also appeared.
Gretchen began requesting prayers for her husband from a group at Central Baptist Church in Fountain City, and her friends became invested in a happy outcome for their friend and her family.
“Our instructors would pray for him and ask me how he was doing frequently,” Gretchen wrote in an email to the News Sentinel. “One day, our instructor looked at me and said, ‘I wonder what blood type I am?’ ”
The instructor had her blood checked and learned that she also has B-positive blood type. She consulted with her husband and quickly decided to offer Junior, a stranger, one of her kidneys.
The donor, who wishes to remain anonymous to the public, and Junior met recently for the first time.
“It is truly humbling to know that there are people in the world who are so generous that they would give a part of themselves to help save a complete stranger,” Junior said. “My donor is nothing short of a hero to me, and the difference she will make for me and my family is indescribable.”
Junior, Gretchen and their 10-year-old twins look forward to the transplant, which is scheduled today at Vanderbilt.
The family has bright hopes for the future. Vanderbilt conducted 197 kidney transplants last year and achieved a 96 percent adult survival rate, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Live transplanted kidneys had a 95 percent survival rate that same year.
“We would like to thank all our friends and family for the prayers, love and concern that they have had for our family,” Gretchen said. “God has blessed us and the program at Central Baptist Church, which has brought Junior a wonderful gift of life!”