DES MOINES – A Mason City man who donated a kidney as part of the largest kidney paired donation chain in the state of Iowa to date is ready to come home today.
Mike Dodge said Monday morning in an interview with NorthIowaToday.com that he “feels fine” and is “chomping at the bit” to head home to Mason City after donating his left kidney to 22-year-old Nick Titus of Des Moines.
“I’m going home for sure,” Mr. Dodge said Monday morning.
Mr. Dodge’s surgery was one of ten donation and transplant surgical procedures that took place at Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines on Jan.7-9, resulting in the largest kidney paired donation chain in the state of Iowa to date. All recipients and donors had their surgeries in the same hospital, making this transplant chain unique.
According to reports, all the surgeries were successful. All the donors have already left the Des Moines hospital, with Mr. Dodge being the last one remaining as of Monday morning. Mercy transplant surgeons Cass Franklin, M.D., FACS, and Johan Aerts, D.O., performed the surgeries.
“The surgery went well,” Mr. Dodge said. “I fell asleep and woke up with out a kidney. My digestive tract didn’t want to wake up right away so the doctors were double checking that.” Both the living kidney donor and kidney transplant recipient surgeries last approximately 3 to 5 hours.
Mr. Dodge, who works as a supervisor for the Dimensional Group, said he has been working up to this surgery for about a year.
“I looked into it, what the repercussions would be,” he said. “I’m happy to get it done. I was anxious, like a kid on Christmas,” the day of the surgery.
Mr. Dodge was able to become a donor after his brother Matt connected him with a possible recipient, who it turned out was not compatible. But, after a call to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines inquiring about that recipient, they added him to their list of potential kidney donors.
Mr. Dodge said Monday that the next organ he would like to donate is his liver.
“The part you donate typically grows back to 90% of what it was,” he said.
At this time in Iowa, 532 people are waiting for a kidney transplant.
