In the News
KIDNEY PATIENT GETS A BREAK
SISTER A DONOR MATCH: Cape Air to provide free flights for Albany checkups
By Jude Seymour, Watertown Daily Times
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
CLAYTON — Kenneth F. Garnsey Jr. knew since he was 10 years old that a day would come when he would need a kidney transplant. What the 32-year-old could not have anticipated, however, was the 15 friends who would jump at the opportunity to donate theirs.
"I'm not one to ask anyone for anything. That part was difficult," said Mr. Garnsey, whose friends know him as Kenny. "But they were telling me that if the shoe was on the other foot, they would be coming to me. I guess that's what happens in a small community."
Mr. Garnsey was seeking a donor because his kidneys were inching closer to total failure. Both were severely damaged from birth by two underdeveloped ureters, which are tubes that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder. By the time the problem was noticed, Mr. Garnsey's kidneys had lost half of their normal function.
Among the pool of candidates, Mr. Garnsey found his ideal match close to home. His 26-year-old sister, Brooke A. Bazinet, shared her brother's blood type, O-positive, and carried the same set of blood and tissue proteins, known as antigens, that could help ensure a good long-term prognosis.
Mr. Garnsey was suddenly getting all the breaks. There were more to come.
The siblings picked Albany Medical Center for the upcoming surgery after learning that the hospital had the area's best results for kidney transplants.
"After hearing how successful they've been and hearing how good he's going to feel, I was like, 'Let's do it,'" said Ms. Bazinet, Clayton.
Mr. Garnsey's joy about the transplant was tempered slightly by the thought of seven-hour drives to Albany and back for weekly checkups. Those would last two months.
"He said, 'It's something we have to do,'" recalled Cary R. Brick, a friend of Mr. Garnsey's. "I said, 'I'd like to make a couple of calls and see if there's maybe some way we could make that a little less strenuous of a trip."
Mr. Brick, Clayton, contacted Cape Air, the Hyannis, Mass., carrier that runs three flights daily from Watertown to Albany.
"I thought maybe they could ease the burden by giving them a special fare," he said.
Instead, Cape Air offered to send Mr. Garnsey and his wife, Nicole, enough tickets to fly free to the surgery and all successive appointments. The value of that offer is more than $3,000.
"I was flabbergasted," Mr. Garnsey said. "This is a great honor. They really need to get something out of this."
Michelle Haynes, Cape Air's spokeswoman, said her company wasn't angling for publicity.
"Once in a while you're able to use the airline to change somebody's life for the better," she said. "This is why we're a community airline. This is what we're supposed to do. When they asked us about this, there was no hesitation at all. This man needs a kidney. Of course we'd do this."
Ms. Haynes said the carrier has provided free flights from Cape Cod to Boston for more than two decades to agencies such as Helping Our Women, which provides assistance to women with chronic or life-threatening illnesses. It also has partnered with Angel Flight, a Tulsa, Okla., outfit that volunteers pilots to fly patients to medical appointments.
If Mr. Garnsey has to add checkups, Ms. Haynes said, Cape Air is "going to give them tickets until he gets his kidney and he's able to do pole vaults."
Mr. Garnsey may not have an Olympics in his future, but he's excited about being able to keep up with his energetic 4-year-old son, Hunter T., in the hockey rink.
"The doctors are telling me I'm going to feel the best I've ever felt," he said. "They tell me I'm going to have no limitations."
The surgery is still unscheduled, but Mr. Garnsey said he hopes it will happen before winter's end. While he waits, he is keeping tabs on his protein, sodium and potassium intake so he won't tax his kidneys. He's also been hunting and fishing to stay active.
"I don't let it bother me," he said of his condition. "I have no regrets. Besides being fatigued, there's nothing I can't do at this point."
