Chain Reaction:

Victorville resident gets kidney transplant thanks to father, six others

When Victorville resident Mauricio Reyes Valdes needed a routine physical for his job, he never could have guessed that it would ultimately land him in the middle of an eight-person kidney transplant chain.

That was back in 2009, and a lot has happened to Valdes since then. The physical revealed problems in his urine, so a specialist was recommended to him. After a blood test, the doctors told Valdes that his kidneys were deteriorating.

“It was both kidneys,” Valdes said. “The right one was working at 5 percent while the left one was working at 23 percent during that time.”

Valdes left his job and went without insurance for some time, but his insurance reactivated once he got a new job. His insurance began warning him about his kidneys.

“They told me, ‘Hey, you’re gonna be on dialysis pretty soon if don’t start taking care of yourself and changing a few things,’” Valdes said.

This warning sparked a fire in Valdes to start taking his kidney issues seriously. The thought of being on hemodialysis scared him. Hemodialysis typically requires patients to visit a dialysis facility three times a week for treatments that can take over four hours. This type of dialysis restricts a patient’s independence because they have to be near a dialysis facility.

Valdes started seeing doctors at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC).

At this point, his kidneys started to worsen, and he chose a different method of dialysis called peritoneal dialysis, which allows for more independence than hemodialysis.

Despite that, it became clear that Valdes was going to need a new kidney, which meant that he needed a donor.

Valdes initially was reluctant to take someone else’s kidney until his son was born. His son served as motivation to go through with the operation.

“I have to do it for someone else now, just not for me,” Valdes said. “Let’s do whatever it takes so I can be with this little guy and teach him and take care of him.”

Valdes’ father, Luis Jara, volunteered, but turned out to be an incompatible donor. That’s when the doctors at Loma Linda brought up the possibility of being part of a transplant chain.

Often, patients in need of a kidney have someone, usually a friend or a relative, that is willing to donate a kidney to them. A transplant chain occurs when their donor is incompatible with them because of their blood type or other circumstances. This was the situation with Valdes and Jara.

At the same time, there was another patient in need of a kidney who also had a donor they were incompatible with. Their donor may be compatible with Valdes and Jara may be compatible with them. They effectively switch donors, thus creating a transplant chain.

Dr. Charles Bratton, surgical director of kidney transplantation at LLUMC, and his medical staff put together an eight-person transplant chain between Valdes, Jara and three other patient-donor couples.

“In a perfect world, a person will come in and they’ll have a loved one, a friend, a family member or someone unknown to them who’s willing to serve as a living donor for them,” Bratton said. “We ask every donor to come in with a living donor.”

Bratton noted how even if a patient’s donor in incompatible with them, they still have the possibility of creating a transplant chain. This is particularly helpful because California has one of the longest waiting lists for kidney transplants in the country due to the lack of donors.

“In California we have a very high population density,” Bratton said. “So many people in a smaller area, it’s hard to have enough donors for all the people, so the waitlist times in California are the longest in the nation.”

Even the transplant chain that Valdes and Jara participated in would not have been possible without altruistic donor Tracy Newton. Newton had no connection to any of the other patients. She made the transplant chain possible when she registered to be a donor in October 2017.

Here’s how the transplant chain worked:

• Newton donated to Asia Khem.

• Khem’s sister, Thya Broadway, donated to Valdes.

• Jara donated to Josephine Save.

• Josephine Save’s daughter, Melody Save, donated to Maria Gomez

Each operation took place over a two-day period on April 23 and 24.

Jara was happy to donate to Save and help his son, even if he was doing it indirectly.

“I believe in God,” Jara said. “I was praying, and I didn’t feel nervous. I was happy to give life to my son. He needed it (more) than me. I’m old and he’s young.

“I’m happy to do that, and if I can do it again I would do it again.”

Valdes and Jara’s recovery has gone well, and there have been no complications. Valdes has been able to expand his diet, but he still chooses to eat healthy in order to take care of his new kidney.

“Now it’s how long do (I) want (my) kidney to last,” Valdes said. “The healthier (I) eat the more chance of it lasting longer and surviving with (me).”

Valdes expressed admiration for his donor and the others who gave up their kidneys.

“When I first met her, it’s a crazy feeling because you know that they’re doing it to help their relative, but at the same time, you do think about them doing it because they want to,” Valdes said. “I’ve never met anyone before who’s willing to take a piece of her body and say, ‘Hey, here you go. Take it.’ That’s a very tough decision and I didn’t even have to go through it.”