Norfolk woman receives ‘meant to be’ kidney donation
The greatest gift Carolyn Kielty’s received this Christmas is her kidney.
But it’s not really hers, she said, and it never truly will be.
It’s Stacie Schaecher’s.
Carolyn began suffering from renal failure in 2013, eventually needing a kidney transplant. Despite members of both her and her husband’s family being tested, she couldn’t find a suitable match.
Her chances were slim at finding a live donor — 4-5 percent of the population are able to be one and blood relatives are typically the best candidates. But a live donation has a higher success rate — with the organ lasting about 15-20 years — than transplants from a cadaver.
Carolyn was about to go on dialysis with her kidney operating at 15 percent when Stacie decided to make a call to learn more about organ donations.
Stacie’s husband, Joe, has worked with Carolyn’s husband, Tom, for 20 years at Affiliated Foods Midwest in Norfolk. The women had met a few times, but weren’t “best buds,” Carolyn said.
That’s why she was shocked when Stacie decided to give her one of her kidneys.
“Tom had told me about (Carolyn) that day,” Joe said. “We talk about our families and stuff, but I hadn’t realized that her condition was quite to the point that it was. When they said that they were looking for a kidney, you know, that she was going to need a kidney transplant, that just takes it to another level.
“I thought to myself, ‘Well, my wife’s (the same blood type) and she’s a nurse,’ so when I got home that day we were just talking about it and I was kind of telling her what Carolyn’s situation was and that already a bunch of her family had been tested and a lot of them couldn’t for whatever reason.”
Then he jokingly asked, “You wouldn’t want to donate a kidney, would you?”
He had no idea that Stacie would seriously consider it.
In 2011, Joe and Stacie were hit by a car that was going 35 mph while they were walking into a Norfolk retail store. Both suffered injuries, but knew the results could have been worse, they said.
“My thought was, ‘Why did God let us live?’ Because we both could have been dead. Then you think, ‘Jeez, all of our kids would have been without parents,’ you know,” Stacie said. “I really struggled with that for a long time, wondering why God let me live and what His purpose was for me. Then when my husband asked that, I was like, ‘Well, maybe this is what He wants me to do.’ ”
Additional motivation, she said, came from talking to her brother-in-law, who donated a kidney to his son 13 years ago.
So, Stacie got tested.
“I just figured that if this is what’s meant to be, it’ll happen,” she said. “If it’s not, it’s fine.”
Not only was Stacie a match for Carolyn, but she was a perfect match — better than even a blood relative. The countless tests — blood, thyroid, cholesterol, HIV, hepatitis, glucose and others — kept coming back fine.
Surgery was scheduled for Nov. 20.
“I wrote Stacie a note and said it was just unbelievable that somebody was willing to give someone a part of themselves,” Carolyn said. “And I just hated that she had to go through all that testing. It’s a really long process.”
Carolyn’s and the transplant team’s primary focus was making sure Stacie was comfortable and that she was sure about the donation.
“She’s the type of person that doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do,” Joe said. “There was nothing that was going to change her mind.”
She didn’t even reconsider when some of her kids — who were initially nervous to have their mother undergo major surgery — asked questions like “What if something goes wrong?” and “What if I need a kidney someday?”
“That’s why we’re here, you know, to give,” Stacie said. “Too many times I think we get caught up in wanting to receive. To make a difference in someone’s life is amazing, and my kids see that, so I hope that if they were ever in that position they can think, ‘My mom did this, so I can do this.’ ”
Both women now are in the recovery process and doing well. Once they’re fully healed, Carolyn and Stacie plan to get matching tattoos incorporating a green ribbon, which represents organ donation.
“I always say God was holding out for the best one,” Carolyn said of her donor.
Now, she and Stacie just hope they can inspire others.
“I think if anything were to come of this at all I would say I encourage people to be tested,” Stacie said. “I mean I know it’s not for everyone and everything, but it’s really neat to think you can give somebody else a chance at life by sharing a part of you.”
