People who have received or donated organs for transplant understand why it’s often called “the gift of life”. Madison County resident and UAB Medicine patient Martha Yarbrough, 85, continues to cherish that gift since receiving a kidney from her sister in 1972.
Yarbrough was 32 when she began having vision problems, dizziness, and nausea, which at first were attributed to extremely high blood pressure. She was referred to UAB, where she was diagnosed with kidney failure and immediately began dialysis to filter waste from her body.
“During the next four months, my dialysis regimen required me to travel from Huntsville to Birmingham twice each week,” Yarbrough said. “This was before Interstate 65 was completed. My family still recalls the many stoplights along Highway 31 to get through Gardendale.”
‘Never heard of such a thing’
She was under the care of the late Arnold G. Diethelm, M.D., the founder of UAB’s organ transplantation program who in 1968 performed Alabama’s first such surgery. More than 16,100 patients have received transplants at UAB since then, including Yarbrough just four years later.
“I had never heard of such a thing,” she recalled. “That idea was very scary for my family and me. After learning more about the procedure, my first question was, ‘Who will be the donor?’ My four siblings were tested, and my youngest sister, Mary, was determined to be a great match. She had said all along that she wanted to be the donor.”
A different era
Yarbrough’s concern was understandable, given that health care in 1972 — never mind organ transplantation — was vastly different. The first U.S. organ donor program was just four years old, and the global computer database for organ allocation used today would’ve seemed like science fiction.
The first successful kidney transplant between non-twin siblings had taken place only 12 years before. The earliest fully effective anti-rejection drug had just been approved and wouldn’t see a major advancement for about a decade.
Transplant surgery itself was also a greater challenge, with much higher risks of infection and organ rejection and longer recoveries for both recipient and donor. Kidney transplant surgery is less invasive now, but the incisions half a century ago could be as large as 10 inches.
Inside jokes and silver linings
In Yarbrough’s case, her chances for a successful transplant were reduced by spending months on kidney dialysis. She recalls the details of her lifesaving procedure.
“Mary and I entered the Veterans Administration Medical Center on Valentine’s Day 1972,” she said. “They were not doing kidney transplants at UAB Hospital at that time. Dr. Diethelm and Dr. Joaquin Aldrete led the transplant team. There were many kind and thoughtful people who made the trip all the way from Lawrence County, Tennessee, as well as Huntsville and Decatur, Alabama. I am still so thankful and appreciative of them. Dr. Diethelm joked that if he had known there would be so many friends and relatives present, he would have performed the surgery at Legion Field. The next December, Mary announced that she was pregnant, and she later gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Our family has always joked that the donated kidney had been in the way.”
The transplant was a big success, and Yarbrough enjoys good health to this day. In fact, she has surpassed the average life expectancy for kidney transplant recipients.
“Mary and I did very well,” she said. “After a four-week stay in the hospital, I was discharged, even though most patients stayed six weeks. Initially, I had weekly checkups at UAB. I still have regular lab work done there, and I have gone from in-person visits to one telehealth visit each year. We are all so blessed and thankful to God that the kidney transplant worked so well. Also, we all are thankful for excellent follow-up care and the many UAB medical professionals – then and now – who have made such a difference in our lives.”
Click here to learn more about the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute, which is recognized as one of America’s top organ transplant centers and has a long history of innovation and achievement.
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