Advance with MUSC Health

Despite Obstacles, Living Donor Kidney Transplant Chain Brings Two Patients Fresh Hope

Advance With MUSC Health
September 22, 2021
Living donors ringing the bell.

Michael Ulmer is retired but he stays busy. Always up for an adventure, he has skied everywhere from Colorado and Utah to Canada. But nothing could prepare him for the undertaking that consumed his life over the course of the past year. The Greensboro, NC native was at his beach house in Litchfield, SC last year when he found out he had double-lung pneumonia. He headed for MUSC, where he immediately tested positive for COVID-19.

“I was shocked,” says Michael, who had been diligent, as safe as possible during the pandemic. “I mean, I just couldn't believe it.”

After three nights in the hospital, he returned home, which is now in Greenville, only to be promptly hospitalized again. Things would only get scarier for the (now) two-time kidney recipient.

Michael, 63, was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, at age 34. By 44, he had undergone his first kidney transplant at MUSC but knew it wouldn’t last forever. “Best case, 20 years,” he says.

A decade ago, that kidney stopped making red blood cells; his hemoglobin levels sank. So Michael began the process of receiving PROCRIT shots, which would build his hemoglobin back up. That was going OK — then 2020 happened.

Living donors 

His bout with COVID presented more problems: COVID patients can't receive PROCRIT because it presents the risk of blood-clotting. Though he knew he’d need another kidney eventually, COVID expedited that necessity.

With his hemoglobin falling scarily low (at 6.1 grams, it's far below the average for men, which is 13.5 to 17.5 grams), Michael struggled to stand up or walk as he began the grueling routine of hemodialysis. After switching from hemodialysis (three to five times a week) to peritoneal dialysis (daily) in February this year, the waiting game for a new kidney commenced.

Things began to look up when in April he got the call: MUSC had scheduled a mid-April, six-way living donor transplant chain composed of three incompatible pairs of donors and recipients.

But Michael’s rollercoaster wasn’t quite over. Two days before the surgeries, that chain fell apart. Luckily, another four-link chain formed two days later when a Good Samaritan (who wants to remain anonymous) stepped up to the plate, and the new date was set. It was welcomed news after two days of heartache.

“For 48 hours we were all very, very depressed and upset,” says Michael’s daughter, Hayley Painter.

On April 21, Michael got his second kidney and a new lease on life — and so did Delvon Harling, the other kidney recipient.

Living donors 

Michael’s daughter, Hayley, is the donor who came to Delvon’s rescue. Though she was not a match for her father, she was willing to donate to anyone since joining a transplant chain also meant helping her family.

Delvon, who’d been on a kidney transplant list for two and a half years, gathered his loved ones to receive the news that MUSC had secured a kidney for him. They all cried happy tears.

“It was breathtaking,” he says. “It’s amazing when what you pray for actually happens.”

Delvon, a 40-year-old Columbia high school teacher and DJ, had been on dialysis for three to five hours a day for 10 months. But it was an anxiety attack in 2018 that prompted him to go to the emergency room and, in a strange twist, discover that his kidneys were deteriorating. He says, “After talking to me about my anxiety and giving me fluids to calm me down, the doctor asked me, ‘So how long have you been dealing with kidney issues?’”

His kidneys were functioning at 15 percent. It was news to him.

Delvon immediately got a biopsy, began care at MUSC and changed his diet. And his MUSC care team began the process of trying to get him placed on a kidney transplant list. He began dialysis last summer, eventually transitioning to doing his own dialysis at home. It was exhausting.

But thanks to Hayley and a successful transplant, he’s already excited to return to work soon, and that’s just for starters. “I’m looking forward to just being able to live more, to travel, to do more things I thought I couldn’t do, but will now be able to do,” he says.

Patients hugging 

He’s also grateful for the care he received, describing his relationship with his MUSC Health care team as “more than awesome.”

“They were there any time I had questions and were right there when I needed anybody's help. They always made sure I was comfortable — they were wonderful, knowledgeable people,” he says.”

After surgery, Delvon had the surreal experience of meeting Hayley as well as her father, Michael. The three remain a tight-knit group who continue to check in on each other, strengthening their very unique bond.

As for Michael’s recovery, he’s doing great. He’s confident he’ll be golfing again soon. By winter, the avid skier also hopes to return to the slopes.

As he’s done for over 20 years, he continues to receive care from MUSC Health and is confident this kidney is for keeps. “It's a 38-year-old guy — that was my Good Samaritan donor,” he says. “I'm hoping this lasts a long time, to the end of my life, and I hope to die from something else.”

One thing’s for sure — he’s really proud of his daughter. “She’s amazing, really,” he says. “I mean, I didn’t have any doubt, but it’s something else.”

Hayley, a 33-year-old nurse practitioner, was three when her dad was diagnosed with kidney disease and eight when he received his first transplant. Knowing her whole life that he may eventually need her, she always knew she’d be the first in line. When she heard about MUSC Health’s Living Donor Program, there was no thinking involved, only the question, “Where do I sign up?”

A few weeks out from surgery, Hayley is recovering well. And as she reflects on her time at MUSC, she can’t help but smile. “I couldn’t ask for a better surgical team,” she says. “They’re hysterical; I love them to death.”

For anyone who has pondered the possibility of becoming a living donor, Hayley has some words of advice: “It's temporary discomfort, temporary pain — and all that for hopefully a lifetime of life for another person. And not just life, but a better quality of life, you know?”

Living Donor Program

For more information about the Living Donor Program, call 843-792-5097 or click on the link.