January 29, 2015
MARSHALL, Texas (1/29/15) - In the course of a friendship, many words are expressed among longtime friends. Friends share laughs as well as hurts. Friends spend time together like seeing a movie or attending a football game. When a close friend is in need and you say, "I will do anything to help you" do you really mean it? How about donating an organ to that friend?
In 2006, East Texas Baptist University alumnus Shane Moore graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. The Marshall native chose the nursing field because of the genetic disorder he has called FSGS, which stands for Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerois. FSGS is a kidney disease.
In 2000, Moore was involved in a terrible vehicle accident in which he was severely injured. The trauma he experienced triggered the FSGS to progress on a quicker timeline than normal progression of the disorder.
"When the wreck occurred it spurred all that stuff concerning the disorder to go faster than expected," said Moore. "The trauma to my body was like pouring gas on the fire and caused a lot of stuff to happen in my kidneys, which might have happened a little later in life."
For the past seven months, Shane, who lives in Houston, has been on dialysis five days a week because his kidneys no longer function properly. "I am able to do hemodialysis at home because my wife, Mary and I are both nurses. The machine I use at home is the same type I used with patients while working in the ICU at Memorial Herman Hospital."
Moore is in need of a kidney transplant to improve his quality of life. The average wait for someone on the kidney donor list is five years unless the person can find a donor among family or friends. After testing family members to see if they were a match failed a lifelong friend, Joey Sutton stepped up to the plate.
Moore and Sutton have been friends since they were 12 years-old playing on the same summer league baseball team, the Rangers. After graduating from Marshall High School, the two eventually ended up at ETBU at the same time. Sutton graduated in 2003 with his Bachelor of Arts in Religion degree.
While students together at ETBU they both were members of the fraternity, Pi Sigma Epsilon. The two also have been groomsmen in each other's weddings. Moore and his wife, Mary, have been married six years. Sutton and his wife, Wendy, have been married 12 years.
Sutton made a comment to his friend after he was recovering from the accident years ago about donation.
"Not too long after Shane's wreck, he got news that he was going to have problems for a while," shared Sutton of Hallsville. "As we would talk about his medical condition I made the comment one day, listen if you ever need a kidney, I'll give you one."
Sutton's offer to donate a kidney to his friend has occurred. On Tuesday, January 27, the two underwent transplant surgery at Methodist Hospital located in the downtown Houston Medical Center. Transplant surgeons performed laparoscopic surgery to remove one of Sutton's kidneys. While Sutton was in surgery, another surgical team prepared Moore's body to receive the organ. The surgeries were a success.
After surgery while the two were in the recovery room Sutton's wife Wendy posted on Facebook, "Shane has a new, pink, producing kidney. All glory to God. I cannot express the level of gratitude I feel for everyone's prayers, support, and love."
"Years ago, Joey said he would love to donate a kidney to me," recalled Moore. "He was serious when he said it but also in a joking manner. It is pretty ironic and here we are, years later and now he is doing that, being able to donate a kidney."
Moore has not been able to work since going on dialysis. Sutton works in the health care industry but not as a nurse like his friend. He is the Director of Patient Experience at Good Shepherd Health System of Longview.
Getting to transplant day has been a lengthy process. First, Moore's family was tested to see if they were matches. One family member was a match but the potential donor's kidney was too small for his body. When the family members could not be donors that is when Sutton approached his friend again.
Sutton remembers talking with Moore early in the year 2014 about how he was doing. "He told me that his kidneys were getting worse," Sutton said. Moore's doctor suggested he began to look for a donor and prepare to be on dialysis.
"I went down to visit Shane in May and noticed just how tired and weak he was getting. It really bothered me," Sutton recalls. "I knew as his family was being eliminated as possible donors I told him to let me know how it goes, if needed, I will be happy to donate one of my kidneys."
During the week of Thanksgiving Sutton went to transplant center in Houston to begin three days of testing.
"The evaluation team works really hard for you not to be a donor," said Sutton. "They look for all kinds of reasons to eliminate you. I was praying, 'Lord if this is how it is going to work and if all works out, let's just do it.'"
The week before Christmas Sutton received the good news that he was match. "I was at my wife's office, our two children were with us, and my phone rang. I noticed it was a Houston number," Sutton said.
Sutton put the phone on speaker to allow Wendy to listen in, "This is Valerie from the transplant center. I just want to call and let you know that you are going to be a good match for Shane. We want to go forward and set a date."
"Wendy and I were hugging, high five-ing, and crying a little bit. Our children didn't know what was going on and they were saying, why are you so happy?"
After a moment of celebrating, Sutton asked Valerie if Shane had been told. "No, why don't you call him?" He made the call to tell his lifelong friend with the great news.
"The phone call took me by surprise at first because we have had some setbacks with everything," Moore said. "When Joey told me he was a match I was happy. But it also broke my heart that somebody cared about me that much to be willing to donate an organ to me."
"How do you say thanks to a guy who is giving you an organ," Moore continued. "Joey is an amazing individual who I have looked up to all my life. Anybody who is willing to give freely a piece of themselves to save another's life is amazing. I hope what Joey is doing will inspire others to have the knowledge to be able to do this as well."
Both had fears going into surgery. The biggest fear is rejection of the kidney by Moore's body.
"My brother asked me, "what if my other kidney fails after six months," said Sutton. "Really, there are no guarantees about anything in life. Driving to work every day or just getting up in the morning, anything could happen to you. I have tried not to allow that to dictate why I should do this or why I should not do this."
"There are a lot of things going through my mind," confessed Moore. "Like possible complications that could happen during surgery, post-surgery, my body rejecting the organ. I know if we lived in fear we would never cross a street or get behind the wheel of a car."
"There is a quote that Joey and I have lived by for the longest," said Moore. "It is from a movie, The Shawshank Redemption that we have watched together. There is a line in the movie that says, 'Get busy living or get busy dying.' Like I said earlier, we cannot live in fear. The outcome is a lot better than the precautions."
The two do recognize the fears that have are real but also look toward hope of the future because of their faith in Christ. They have dreamed of how they could possibly celebrate in one year after all has worked out for the good.
"I have had many physical limitations because of the dialysis. So, I am looking forward to be able to exercise. We talked about doing a mud run or something like that," concluded Moore.
The two life-long friends both echoed after surgery that they hope their story will encourage others to consider becoming a donor. A resource for information is the National Kidney Foundation website, www.kidney.org.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Nahum has declared, "The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him." (Nahum 1:7 NKJ)
(Editor's note 1/31/2015)- Both Shane and Joey have been dismissed from the Hospital. Here is what Joey's wife, Wendy posted on Facebook today:
"The boys are both home! They are both doing really well and today Joey and I will make our way back to Hallsville! Shane has a longer road ahead in the way of recovery so please keep him in your prayers. Please pray for Shane's wife Mary. She is an awesome wife and nurse and takes such good care of Shane. The next couple of months will be crucial to Shane's healing and the acceptance of the kidney. Joey will be sore and tired for a while but a couple weeks of rest should do the trick. Thank you all so very much for being concerned and for those that contacted me when they hadn't seen an update in a while. It means so much that so many were keeping up with things and praying. Again, we want to stress the need for organ donation. So many people are in need. http://donatelife.net/register-now"
(Editor's Note 2/11/15)- Joey Sutton posted this today on his Facebook page:
"My post-op visit with the surgeon and the transplant center went really well on Monday. Everything is healing perfectly and my labs and kidney function are normal; they are even reluctantly letting me go back to work next Monday. So that's the official report. Here's the truth - I can't tell I don't have two kidneys, honestly I never knew if I did or not! Other than a weird scab on my stomach and the abdominal pain, physically it's like nothing happened. I say that to make two points:
1. Your prayers and support made that possible. I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for your prayers, faith, thoughts, encouragement, visits, support, food, just everything you did for our family. Despite what we see all around us, there is good in this world and your actions prove that. I honestly believe it matters; prayer matters, faith matters, goodness, kindness, sacrifice, it ALL matters, and it matters on a level we don't always see or understand. God in his mercy and through your prayers made this easy on me physically and mentally, which leads me to my next point.
2. When you look at the organ transplant process, unfortunately the surgery gets all the glory, and in reality that's the easiest part of the process (which sounds counter-intuitive because the fact that they can take an organ out of one person and put it in another person is a miracle in and of itself). Don?t misunderstand me, we are right to celebrate and should be thankful that the surgical outcome was good, but don't forget that while I'll be back to normal in no time Shane has months and months of walking a tight rope. He has bi-weekly office visits with multiple doctors and lab work, a pharmacy full of medicines to take, side effects from the medicine, details that have to be pored over meticulously to ensure that his body accepts the organ. I am so happy to report that he's off dialysis and seeing improvement already, but he has a long road ahead and I don't want that to be forgotten.
So please continue to thank God for the miracle so far, and continue to ask for a miracle every day." - Joey
"But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted."
-Job 5:8-9