A perfect match!
Polycystic kidney disease permeates Lisa Miller’s family she explained. It’s an inherited disorder, explained online by the Mayo Clinic staff, in which clusters of cysts develop which are noncancerous and contain a water-like fluid. As they accumlate more fluid they can grow very large.
Lisa’s father died from it... lots of her relatives are affected with it... and her brother had been on dialysis for seven years.
Jeff Skaalrud needed a kidney transplant and was actually at the top of the list. But the catch was: he had a rare blood type and they couldn’t find a donor to match.
Family stepped up to be checked... but no one matched.
Lisa posted this request on her Facebook page but didn’t get a donor.
Then one day she was having a friendly conversation on the phone with her ex-husband, Dan Schneider, who lives on the west side of the twin cities. She accidentally mentioned that her brother needed a kidney transplant and they hadn’t been able to find a donor because of his rare blood type.
On the spur of the moment Lisa asked Dan what his blood type was?
You guessed it.
It was the same rare type as her brother.
So Dan went to be tested and everything fit. This was amazing as he is not a blood relative.
Now by that time, Jeff’s two kidneys were as large as footballs. Lisa said they found later they weighed 40 pounds!
On February 10 the surgeries took place and Lisa explained that the kidney transplanted to Jeff started working right away in the operating room.
Dan had some health concerns after surgery but is recuperating well now.
Jeff is recuperating at the Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester.
.
