Heart of
by Karen Unternahrer
Missi ns
This month, I’m sharing a letter I received from Kelly Frey. - Karen
Recently I had the privilege of observing a kidney transplant at one of the
big hospitals in Indianapolis. On my drive
home I was struck with the parallel of
organ transplantation to “human transplantation” and my thoughts turned to
you being transplanted [as missionaries].
The person receiving the organ had
End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) due to
polycystic kidney disease (which basically
means she has huge cysts all over her kidney). A good friend decided she wanted
to donate one of her fully functioning
kidneys so that she might live a longer
and higher quality of life.
In surgery, I started out in the donor’s room. The surgeon opened her up
and separated the chosen kidney from the
rest of her body. They found the 3 crucial
vessels: the renal artery, the renal vein,
and the ureter. See, the kidney is your
body’s main filter of toxins so it receives
a rich blood supply and filters out the
toxins and excretes it into urine. (When it
doesn’t work, the body fills up with toxins
and wears it out.) It is important to make
sure these three vessels (the blood ones
and the urine one) are durable enough to
cut and re-attach in the recipient’s body.
Before detaching the kidney from the
donor completely, the surgeon cut the
ureter to ensure that urine was flowing
through it. Sure enough, after about 15
seconds of waiting, a clear fluid ran out!
We knew it was okay to transplant.
While all this was going on, the
recipient was having her diseased kidney
removed. When I went into that room, I
saw her diseased kidney--it was all bubbly
and enlarged (probably four to five times
bigger than the normal kidney). Anyway,
I followed the donated kidney into the
recipient’s room. There the transplant
surgeon cleaned and irrigated the donated kidney. With only thirty to forty five
minutes of transition time, he quickly cut
away excess fatty tissue, rinsed the tubes
with sterile solution, and tied down loose
vessels that weren’t necessary. The whole
time the kidney was in this bowl full of
icy water to keep it alive. It turned a grayish-green color and got kind of shriveled
and hard (this was expected, however it is
not the way it looks when it is attached to
a blood supply).
Then, he was ready to sew the corresponding vessels to the recipient. After
attaching the two main blood vessels,
the kidney turned red and looked full of
life. Blood perfused throughout it and
it swelled with function. We waited for
urine to flow from the ureter and, sure
enough, it did. Success -- the kidney began to do its job in its new environment.
Then, the surgeon could attach the ureter
to the recipient’s ureter and finish tying
up loose ends and sewing up the patient.
When she wakes up she will feel like a
new person since her body will now be
able to filter out all its toxins.
The parallels: You are the kidney ...
you are healthy and strong in your relationship to Christ and to our church (the
donor). Out of you flows a strong stream
of gifts and love (urine) and we know that
you’ll take that with you to your placement in the Dominican Republic (the
recipient). Now, unlike the kidney, you
won’t be completely cut off from your
previous blood supply (our church), but
you will receive a new blood supply there.
It may be full of toxins that haven’t been
able to flow through a working filter, but
that’s what you’re going for -- to be the
new filter! The new location will feel new
and refreshed by your presence there and
you can enhance its function as a whole.
I trust that it will only take a short time
for the gifts of the people there to be able
to grow through your facilitation (like
the urine was able to start flowing in the
recipient right away). God is the surgeon
and he’s done this many times, so trust
Him. Even though it might seem to take
forever (this surgery was really long by
the way), know that it will work!
Community Calendar
“Your source for what’s happening”
7/1 Maple Wood Nature Center Closed
2 Co. Commisioners Mtg....... 9:00am
3 COA: Aging in Place............ 8:00am
4 Topeka Independence Day
Celebration (pg. 44)
Council on Aging Closed
5 COA: BP/Glucose checks..... 8-9 am
Wii............................ 9-10 am
6 AARP Meeting @ Mt. Zion Church.
(public welcome)............. 1:30 pm
9-20 Swimming lessons @ Dallas Lake
Park for children 5 yrs and
older. 260-854-2225
7-14 LaGrange County 4-H Fair
9 Topeka Town Council........ 4:00 pm
12 Shipshe Town Council........ 7:00pm
14 Summer Art Class @ Maple Wood
Nature Center Call to register
260-854-2225
WV School Board................ 7:00pm
16 Topeka Park Board.............. 5:00pm
Shipshe Park Board............. 6:00pm
18 Breakfast with the Birds
@ Maple Wood Nature Ctr.. 8:30am
23 Topeka Town Council......... 4:00pm
26 Shipshe Town Council........ 6:00pm
28 Cowboy Day............ 12:00-4:00 pm
@ David Rogers Park
30- Aug. 3 Mega Sports Camp
@ Eden Worship Center
Are w e missing your event that the
community should know about?
Next time, be sure to submit your
calendar item to [email protected] or 260-463-4901.
The Hometown Treasure · July ‘12 · pg 31