Serendipity and hope

Daniel F. Warner and Daniel E. Wagner have more in common than a 30-year friendship and names separated by two letters.

The former teaching colleagues at University High School in Greeley now have a kidney in common.

Dr. Peter Kennealey, surgical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program and faculty member at the CU School of Medicine, transplanted a kidney from Wagner to Warner in early December at University of Colorado Hospital (UCH). Warner, principal at Narragansett High School in Rhode Island, suffered from polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary condition in which clusters of cysts develop, compromising kidney function. Warner had been on dialysis for more than two years and was on a transplant list in his home state. The average wait time for a kidney is five to six years.

But hope and serendipity came together when Warner visited a friend in Colorado who worked at CU and touted UCH’s transplant program. He then got firsthand insight about the program during the same trip when visiting Wagner, whose wife Kim also had polycystic kidney disease.

Kim Wagner had a kidney transplant about four years ago at UCH as part of the Paired Share program, a multi-state, multi-patient procedure coordinated by the transplant team. As she went through the process, her husband offered to be the donor, but the team determined Kim’s sister was better suited to donate.

But after going through the experience with his wife, Dan Wagner told his old friend he would donate one of his kidneys to him.

“Everybody has an extra kidney, you just need to find someone to give it to,” Wagner said. “I would encourage people who want to make a difference in someone’s life that this is a great way to do it.”

The Wagners raved about Kim’s experience with the UCH transplant team, leading Warner to explore the possibility.

“I can’t tell you how much Kim and I appreciate the whole transplant team, getting the procedure done, and helping us after the fact,” Wagner said. “They’re so humane, so kind and so gentle.”

The experience made it easy to offer a kidney to his old friend. And as a former math teacher, Wagner had researched and calculated the risk and found it to be low. He knew the reward firsthand.

“The success rate is high and the risk is minimal,” Wagner said. “I saw the transformation with my wife, and it was a miracle.”

Wagner urged Warner to visit Dr. Alexander Wiseman, a CU School of Medicine physician and medical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs at UCH. Warner felt something that had eluded him during the difficult dialysis sessions three times a week and declining health and quality of life.

“He gave me hope,” Warner said. “He made me feel confident that they were going to make this work, and everybody on the transplant team had a singular focus.”

That focus is honed by a team that is not only one of the best in the United States, but one of the busiest, said Dr. James Cooper, associate professor of transplant nephrology in the School of Medicine and program director of the University of Colorado Renal Transplant Fellowship Program. They perform about 250 kidney transplants annually.

“We definitely have a national reputation, and as our numbers have grown, we’re getting more and more of a reputation,” Cooper said. “There are not many transplant centers in the country that have the infrastructure, staffing and quality that can facilitate that many transplants.”

Cooper said Warner was an ideal candidate because he was otherwise healthy and had a living donor.

“One of the most important things we try to communicate to all patients who need a kidney is the importance of living donations. Not only are you getting a kidney quicker, you’re getting a healthier kidney. Dan was fortunate to have someone donate to him.”

Warner knows that all too well.

“How do you say thank you to someone who is donating a kidney to you, how do you find the words?” he said. “I didn’t know what to say other than ‘thank you,’ but it was only after I received his kidney that I realized just how special it was.”

About a third to a half of kidney transplants are from live donors, and a third to a half of those know each other.

Warner and Wagner may be a somewhat rare in the world of kidney transplants, but they said the experience will strengthen an already strong friendship. And they both talked about something that not only connected them, but also the transplant team.

“There’s a human factor in all this, with everyone involved, from Dan and his family to the transplant team that’s humbling and inspiring,” Warner said. “I can go back to living my life, and I will do so with a renewed faith in humanity.”