Cousin’s kidney saves a woman vying in the Transplant Games

Holly Miyagawa

Holly Miyagawa (right) will compete in the National Kidney Foundation’s biannual U.S. Transplant Games, with a kidney donated by her cousin Darlene.

When Hermosan Holly Miyagawa strikes a volleyball, puts a shot and sprints in the National Kidney Foundation’s biannual U.S. Transplant Games beginning tomorrow, she’ll be competing as a tribute to her cousin Darlene, whose kidney is serving Miyagawa’s body.

“Darlene gave me my life back,” Miyagawa said.

The 39-year-old was born with kidneys that were too small, but they did their job while she was young. At age 16 she had her blood pressure tested and was placed on medication, and told she would eventually need a kidney transplant. Then at age 29 she felt her energy drop off sharply. It was hard to play volleyball on the beach, a favorite pastime.

“It was November, and I thought I was tired because of the time change,” she said. “Then I thought I had a cold.”

One day as she played, she became so drained of energy that she knew something more serious was wrong.

“I looked down, and my thighs, calves and ankles were all the same size, they swelled up so much. My feet were so big I couldn’t put tennis shoes on,” she said.

She realized that her kidneys, which are filtering organs, must have thrown in the towel. She was taken to a hospital and found that her kidney function had slipped to 25 percent. She was placed on dialysis and told that she would need a transplant soon.

“We began testing family members almost immediately. To everyone’s surprise, my cousin Darlene was a match. We were not that close and only saw each other over the holidays. It was a bit of a surprise as to how fast she volunteered to help me, but she’s always been a giving person,” she said.

The speed of events made Miyagawa’s head spin.

“It turned out she had talked to my mom and said ‘What can I do to get tested?’ We laugh about this now, but she didn’t even tell her husband,” Miyagawa said.

On March 6, 2000 the cousins were wheeled into adjoining operating rooms at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles .

Noted surgeon Gerhard Fuchs used a then-new laparoscopic “keyhole-surgery” technique to make a small incision and use a tube to suck out the donor’s kidney, leaving her without a scar. The kidney was hustled into the next room and placed inside Miyagawa. The surgeons put it in front of the normal kidney location.

“I still have the old ones in back. They’re small and shriveled, and nothing’s connected,” Miyagawa said.

Before the transplant, my cousin asked while they were in there, could they suck some of her fat out? We had to make light of it. As scared as we both were, we had to say something to make everyone laugh,” Miyagawa recalled.

Afterward, physicians and “suits” gathered around the donor to admire Darlene’s laparoscopy.

“She was famous,” Miyagawa said.

“We were admitted into the hospital on a Monday and Darlene was released on Tuesday. She was back on solid food by Wednesday and playing in Vegas by the weekend.”

Both cousins enjoy full kidney function.

“My recovery has been amazing… I was back at work within two months, and back on the beach playing volleyball within three months. I was thin and weak and had very little energy, but I was alive and that was all that mattered,” Miyagawa said.

She began speaking at high schools on the importance of organ donation, for the nonprofit OneLegacy, described as the largest of the 58 federally designated organ recovery agencies in the U.S.

In 2006 she represented Team Southern California at the U.S. Transplant Games in Kentucky, winning a gold medal in volleyball and three bronze medals on the track. In 2008 the team again won volleyball gold and Miyagawa won gold in the 100-meter run in Pittsburgh.

This year the Games are being played in Madison, Wis., where Miyagawa will compete in volleyball, a softball throw, shot put, and the 100- and 200-meter sprints.

“It’s competitive, and it’s great to get out and do our thing, but it’s all about the donors and the donor families, paying tribute to the people who save our lives,” she said. ER

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