The Gift Of Life – Fiancé gives kidney to his love

When St. Albans resident Jarena Bates, who was diagnosed with kidney disease eight years ago, went into kidney failure in May of this year, her fianc/, Tyehesian (Tye) Johnson, insisted on being tested to see if he was a match to donate a kidney.
After having already given her his heart and a ring, he gave her a kidney on October 15, 2007, marking the first transplant to take place at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH).
The couple first met when Johnson, also a St. Albans resident, was picking up his little brother, who had been playing with Bates’ cousin. He said it was love at first sight for him, and that he soon started finding reasons to go to the house more often.
In May of 2007, only a short time after they became engaged, Bates found out she needed a kidney transplant. Although Bates didn’t want him to, Johnson was tested as a potential match.
“Before we got back to the house, the doctors called and said that we were a perfect match,” said Johnson, who also said that he never had any second thoughts about donating the kidney. He continued, “It had everything to do with love. Love played a huge part in this.”
The transplant happened on Monday, October 15. Dr. Ernesto Molmenti, the Director of Transplantation at NSUH, performed the transplant surgery and Dr. Louis Kavoussi, the health system’s chairman of urology, removed Johnson’s kidney. Just a few days afterwards, both were able to walk on their own and Bates said that she felt great.
“A lot of people wouldn’t make the sacrifice that he did,” Bates said.
Dr. Madhu Bhaskaran, the Medical Director of the NSUH’s Transplant Program, said, “It’s often referred to as the gift of life. But, in this rare instance, it was a gift of love.”
As the first transplant done there, this was also an important event for North Shore University Hospital.
“This is truly a major milestone in the history of the North Shore-LIJ Health System,” said its president and chief executive officer, Michael J. Dowling.
This will be the first transplant program in Queens and Nassau County. Dowling estimated that there are currently about 870 people in Queens waiting for kidney transplants and 370 in Nassau County. The average waiting period for a kidney transplant can be as long as seven or nine years.
Donna Dalton, the Administrative Director of the Transplant Program, said that the North Shore-LIJ Health System had been working on establishing the program for the last eight years. It received full approval from the Department of Health on October 5.
As the program begins, it will only be performing kidney transplants and will next expand to doing pancreas transplants. Dalton said that the goal is to eventually do all forms of organ transplants.
Although Bates and Johnson were initially going to get married in July of 2008, the couple has decided to wait until October. Bates said that they want to get married around the one year anniversary of their kidney transplant surgery.
“Most people are nowhere as lucky as myself,” Bates said.