Quest for a Kidney
How one man got a kidney from an unlikely person

Michael Waldon, 48, a Staten Island resident, got a new kidney from his cousin, an inmate at a minimum security prison upstate, last Thursday.

Before receiving the new kidney, he was spending three days a week four hours at a time on dialysis to remove deadly toxins from his blood.

"Waldon was lucky to find an exact match," says Dr. John Tomasula, 46, who performed the transplant surgery on Waldon. "Kidney donors are easier to come by than heart donors. Finding a blood and organ match are still difficult."

Waldon says his cousin offered his kidney to him as soon as he heard he was sick.

"His mother and my mother went to visit him one day and he asked about me," says Waldon. "They told him I was sick and he said, 'I'll give him a kidney.'"

Waldon contacted Assemblyman Robert Straniere, who brought his case before Gov. George Pataki. Pataki gave his consent to allow Waldon's cousin to be transported to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan for the operation.

Problems with his kidneys started about five years ago.

"One day about five years ago I just stopped urinating," says Waldon. "Both kidney's had shut down."

He says his doctor sent him to a kidney specialist that confirmed his worst fear.

"When he [my doctor] said dialysis to me, I thought, 'It's the end of the game,'" recalls Waldon.

He went on organ waiting lists at neworks in the tri-state area. But five years came and went, and he found himself still waiting and getting sicker and sicker. Dialysis was taking its toll on his body, says Waldon.

"I was tired and achy all the time," explains Waldon. "The excess fluid I gained each time I went for dialysis made it hard to get around."

During each dialysis session, he says he gained about 10 pounds of fluid.

"All that pumping [of blood] put pressure on my heart and organs," he says. "It was exhausting."

Waldon says he and his cousin barely knew each other before the surgery. But his cousin told him he had fond memories of hanging out with him when he was a kid.

"He and his cousin are doing very well," says Barbara Lindower, the transplant coordinator at the hospital.

"My cousin was up the next day," Waldon says. "It was a simple procedure. The doctors made three little holes in him and sucked the kidney out. He was in a room right next to me the whole time."

Waldon goes into the hospital a few times a week for his doctors to check on him.

Waldon says he would encourage others to donate their organs.

"You're saving someone's life," says Waldon.

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