As Greg and Patti Aubert celebrate Christmas, the Luverne couple hopes to meet the individual who gave a special gift to Greg almost seven weeks ago.
On Nov. 3 Greg received a kidney from a living donor while on the same day Patti donated one. The transplant, however, wasn’t between the two of them.
The Auberts were the first paired-match kidney donations between Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls and Mayo Clinic in Rochester. It was also the 116th kidney transplant conducted at Sanford.
The living donor program allows a better match between patients and recipients. The anonymous process begins with a family or friend willing to donate a healthy kidney.
Without hesitation Patti knew she would donate a kidney for her husband of 25 years to receive a better match.
“Quality of life is so much better,” said Patti. “And it isn’t really going to change my quality of life.”
The live donor procedure was the best option for Greg, who suffers from polycystic kidney disease.
PKD is an inherited disorder in which clusters of fluid-filled cysts develop around the kidneys. It is a painful disease that has no treatment or cure, and dialysis or transplants are last-resort treatments.
“If you have it, you can develop cysts at any time,” Patti said. “They tend to come in the fourth and fifth decades of life.”
For Greg, who turned 50 this year, PKD was first diagnosed in 2008, after he suffered his second pulmonary embolism.
Since then his kidney functions have gradually declined, prompting the search for a transplant while there was still some function.
He said his dad died as a result of PKD in the mid 1980s after going through kidney dialysis, a treatment that was both physically and emotionally tough on his dad and for Greg and his family to experience.
The Auberts expected to wait a year before seeking other medical options.
“What was fortunate for me, I avoided (dialysis),” Greg said.
On the afternoon of Nov. 3, Greg received his new right kidney in Sioux Falls. It came from Rochester’s Mayo Clinic.
That morning Patti’s left kidney was also removed in Sioux Falls and transported to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
“We don’t really know a whole lot, but it was a really good match for him,” Patti said.
“Comparable to a sibling donating,” added Greg.
One thing known about Greg’s new kidney is that it came from a female, possibly similar in body build to Greg.
They don’t know if the other donor and recipient are a husband-wife, brother-sister or just friends.
“I think it would be interesting to know them —know their story,” Patti said.
Medical staff is still coordinating the meeting.
The Auberts suspect the medical situations may have been more dire for the two near Rochester.
Original plans had the kidney swap scheduled for Oct. 20, a little over a month after the Auberts were added to the national exchange list.
“It was almost too quick,” Greg said.
The Auberts asked for a two-week delay to prepare and to allow Greg to attend the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football game on Oct. 31.
Ironically Luverne native Kelsey Petersen attended the same game. Petersen was a nurse to both Greg and Patti as they recovered from surgery in Sioux Falls.
It was the kidneys that made the four-hour trip to the hospitals and not the patients.
“People do better by following up with their own transplant team,” Patti explained.
The Auberts were also able to recover together in their Luverne home with the help of family members including their sons, Zane and Wyatt.
Since the surgeries, Patti has returned to work as a pharmacist at Sanford in Sioux Falls. Greg is cleared to return to his work as plant manager of Gold’n Plump in Luverne on Jan. 4.