Alan Hendry stood with friends and family to watch the Independence Day parade in Squantum. But it was really his own independence Hendry was celebrating.
A year ago, Hendry's only functioning kidney was failing, and he was weeks away from being hooked to a dialysis machine to keep him alive.
Then he got his life back.
Ken Bambrick, the husband of his wife's friend, donated one of his kidneys. Last Fourth of July, Hendry, 51, of Quincy, was looking at a five-year wait for a new kidney. He had sent out 50 e- mails asking former classmates and friends to consider donating an kidney to help save his life.
Hendry's only functioning kidney had been donated by his brother 30 years earlier, and had been failing for the past three years. He was at 5 percent kidney function.
His health had failed to the point where he was too tired even to take his 13-year-old daughter bowling.
That's when his wifell,ll Kathleenll,ll reconnected with childhood friend Kathleen Bambrick at their workplaces at Marina Bay.
After discovering the Hendrys' situation, Ken Bambrick, 52, and his wife offered to be tested. Kathleen was not a match. But Ken Bambrick, who said he was upset nobody no one had come forward to help Hendry, was a nearly perfect match.
"I was excited," Ken Bambrick said of the months- long testing process. "I had some sort of feeling that it was all going to go through."
Ken Bambrick, a father of 10-year-old twin boys, said he would have felt guilty had he not offered to get tested last August.
"Everyone hopes they can do something that has meaning during their life," he said.
On Jan. 8, after months of tests, consultations, anxiety and hope, the two men went into surgery together at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Both said the experience changed them. Hendry is now able to run, swim and live unencumbered by health problems. Bambrick emerged with one less kidney, but knows he saved another person.
"He's my hero," Hendry's mother, June, said.
As their families gathered at June Hendry's house on July 4th Friday, the two men showed quiet appreciation for what each gained from the experience. They talked, and they joked. "He doesn't have to call me all the time and thank me," Ken Bambrick said. "But if he wants to buy me a new truck, he's welcome to."
"Or a boat!," Kathleen Bambrick said.
"Right, the truck is going to pull the boat," Ken Bambrick said.
Ken Bambrick said he feels as good today as he felt before the surgery, but was worried about how his kidney, which doctors said was the "best looking kidney they'd ever seen," would be received by Hendry. Hendry is doing fine. He has been able to be more active and, for the first time in 30 years, swim without fear of kidney infection from an external stent in his old kidney.
"I definitely think he's got a piece of Ken," Kathleen Bambrick said. "We kid around about that."
"He saved his life," Kathleen Hendry said, giving him back his independence.
Bambrick, who has to do some manual labor in his job at a granite supply company, said taking some time off work was only a small disruption, and an easy call to make.
"I knew for the amount of time I was going to put in, it would pay dividends," he said. "I know that I made the right decision. I see it sitting right here."
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Kidney Transplant, Post Surgery Updateby FirehouseMike5,188 views
thts nyc of u to put this video on nd let us see tht ppl care.... really appreciate it....
angel4eva2008 3 years ago
Bravo Ken!
deegish 3 years ago
Very cool, thanks for promoting the issue!
DonateLifeIllinois 3 years ago