The Gift of a LIFETIME

AS FAR AS FATHER’S DAY GIFTS GO, not many can beat the gift of life.

Twenty years ago, Jodi Weigel and Samantha Huber were able to provide that gift to their fathers via kidney donation.

Weigel’s father, David Anderson, had been diagnosed with adult-onset type 1 diabetes when she was a child. When his kidney failed, she and her siblings all decided to get tested to see if any of them would be a match.

“I had a feeling right away that I was a blood match,” Weigel said. She told her brothers and sister that she wanted to get tested first, and her gut feeling turned out to be true.

When Weigel found out that she was a match, she was the one that got to break the news to her father. She left work in Aberdeen and drove down to Groton where her parents lived.

“All my family was at the house,” Weigel said. “When I showed up, they thought something bad happened.”

Anderson loves working on old cars, so Weigel told him that their spark plugs matched and that they had to pick a surgery date.

Weigel and Anderson with Anderson’s 1930 Model A Ford “Betsy.”

“He told me that he didn’t want my good parts,” Weigel said. “I just told him that his grandkids want him to have them.”

Weigel said that she had to go through many different tests, including a psychological test. They were completed at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls.

“At one point I had to give a bunch of blood, and the lab tech took me into a room with a huge pile of vials,” she said. “I looked at the tech and said ‘you realize I still need some blood for myself?’”

Weigel belongs to Aberdeen Area Gift of Life and learned that Huber, her daughter’s friend, donated a kidney to her own father a month earlier.

“Her recovery was really fast,” Weigel said. “Once her surgery was done she was out the same day.”

The surgery itself happened on July 19. Weigel was at the hospital for a total of four days. She and her father were discharged on the same day. They stayed in Sioux Falls overnight, and after a check-in at the hospital the next day, they were cleared to go home.

Today, Weigel says that she can barely tell that she had surgery in the first place. Her creatine levels are a little different, and she was told not to take Motrin. She also said that she feels colder than before, and other kidney donors that she’s spoken to have said the same.

“It was successful for my dad,” she said. “He had a few complications after, but he was up and walking before I was.”

Weigel said that there are many people on the organ donation list, and that it’s important for families to have conversations about organ donation, especially if they’re younger.

“When something bad happens, it’s better to know what the person’s wishes are before,” Weigel said. “During a stressful time, your thought process isn’t quite there.”

A good time to talk about this topic is when it’s time to update a driver’s license, since people can decide if they’d like to opt in to become organ donors.

“There’s not a word in the Webster dictionary to describe how you feel,” Weigel said. “You feel very grateful that you’re able to do something.” Huber donated her kidney to her father on June 14, 2005 – Father’s Day weekend.

“It’s his Father’s Day present for life,” Huber laughed.

Her father, Raymond Huber, struggled with a kidney disease. One kidney had to be removed due to cancer. Huber said that she was only 17 when her father went on the donor waiting list. After a year of unsuccessful searching, Huber told her father that she was going to give him her kidney.

“I just knew I was a match,” Huber said. “He didn’t think I was. He didn’t want it anyway. He told me that parents are supposed to take care of their kids, not the other way around.”

Huber went through the testing process at Mayo Clinic. After several physical and psychological tests, Huber was confirmed to be a match.

“After that, he said I could go through with it,” she said.

Raymond Huber and his daughter Samantha Huber

The transplant was scheduled for 14. Huber had graduated from high school by then, and since everything happened over the summer, she was able to start classes at Northern State University that fall. Prior to the surgery her family held fundraisers and donation collections to help offset the transplant expenses. Huber and her father also had their will drawn up in case something happened during surgery.

Huber said that the transplant was her second time ever having surgery. She and her father got to see each other in the surgical waiting room one last time before the surgery, which is an opportunity that patients don’t often get.

The surgery was successful for both Huber and her father.

“It wasn’t a long recovery at all,” she said. “The doctors said it would take about three months to recover, but I was back to work after a month.”

Huber’s father was able to return home after a month. Despite a few ups and downs with transplant medication, he hasn’t needed to go through dialysis at all after the transplant.

“His kidney – I mean my kidney – is doing well,” she said. “It hasn’t affected me negatively at all. I’ve had no health issues, and it’s great to have my dad around.”

Huber said that their lives have changed for the better thanks to the surgery.

“I would say if you have the opportunity to do it, do it,” Huber said. “It makes me happy to think about it. It’s crazy to think about how it’d be if I didn’t do it. I’m glad I did.” //