Woman donates kidney to save friend
By Ashley Shah
Valerie Chu, a longtime resident of Scripps Ranch, donated one of her kidneys to a local friend in need.
“I was chatting with one of my friends; she’s a colleague. We are both in similar stages in life,” Chu said. “It came up that she was having health concerns. She mentioned how she needed a new kidney. She was told that the wait for a deceased-donor kidney would be about five to seven years, which would be a difficult timeline given her condition.”
Chu decided to take a look into ways she could help.
“My friend didn’t ask me to donate my kidney. She would not have done that. I decided to look into the process to donate a kidney after she sent me the information. I decided that I wanted to go through the process of donating one of my kidneys. God has blessed me with such great health, and I wanted to be able to bless others,” Chu said.
She signed up as a donor on the National Kidney Registry. The National Kidney Registry is an organization that matches kidney donors and recipients through hospitals all over the country.
“There are a whole set of screening procedures, such as bloodwork, X-rays, checking your own personal medical history, etc., before you can be cleared as a donor. The whole process can take a few months,” Chu said. “One of the nicest things about the process is that there is a whole medical panel that assesses whether this procedure will be okay for your health as the donor. Knowing that there was a whole medical team for me made my family and I feel much more comfortable.”
Chu was approved as a viable donor after a few months.
“Unfortunately, we found out that I was not a match for my friend. I’ll be honest, that felt like a bit of a setback because I really wanted to do this for someone I knew personally. But luckily, the registry has a paired-match process,” she said. “The paired-match process works in the way that I would donate my kidney to someone, and that person’s friend/donor would donate their kidney to my friend.”
Chu’s surgery took place on Dec. 17 this past year.
“We actually found out there were further complications before the surgery. The paired-match process was not going to work out in the way we had planned. I still ended up going through with my end. I donated my kidney. The recipient was on the East Coast. My kidney was sent out right after the surgery,” she said. “The surgery went well. You do have to stay in the hospital for a few days to make sure everything is functioning normally, and that you are healing. There was pain. Obviously, it is a surgery at the end of the day. However, my medical team was amazing. They really took great care of me.”
Even though Chu was not able to donate her kidney directly to her friend, her friend was able to receive a viable kidney.
“They kind of used my kidney donation as a voucher. My friend was moved up on the list in a way. We were really happy to hear that because she needed this to be timely as her health was declining,” she said.
“My friend had her surgery … to receive a donated kidney from someone in Minnesota,” Chu added. “It was successful and she’s doing well. I am so thrilled to see my donation bearing fruit like this for my friend.”
Her friend had her surgery to receive a kidney on Jan. 6.
“If this was something I could do again, I would. What a tremendous gift to give someone. This is something that will change the course of their life,” Chu said. “There are so many people who need kidneys. We all have a spare. There is concern and hesitation, which is understandable. But, I want people to know that this is possible.”
For more information about being a kidney donor or recipient, visit kidneyregistry.com.