Kathy Buttle of Harrisburg donated a kidney to her friend Nabor Guzman of Scottsbluff, and during the process, Buttle says Guzman saved her life thanks to organ donation tests revealing that she has precancerous cysts on her pancreas
JEFF FIELDER Editor
HARRISBURG – About 21 years ago, John Buttle of Harrisburg lost one of his kidneys because of Lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues and organs.
Buttle was able to function fine the next 18 years with one kidney, but in 2016, his lone kidney began to shut down. He was told that he might need to go on the kidney transplant list, but his wife, Kathy, said she would be willing donate one of her kidneys.
“I really wanted to help my husband,” she said.
After going through some organ donation testing, though, Kathy was told by doctors that she couldn’t donate a kidney to her husband because their blood type didn’t match. His is Type O, and hers is Type A.
“That was really discouraging to hear,” she said.
Fortunately, at about that same time, doctors managed to stabilize John’s kidney. It was functioning at only 25 percent, but that was still good enough to get by.
“Kidneys are pretty amazing organs. Even functioning at just 25 percent, a kidney can handle what it needs him to do,” Kathy said. “He can get by with that for now, which is good because you can’t get a kidney transplant until it drops below 20 percent.”
Kathy is confident her husband will be fine even if his kidney does drop below 20 percent.
“We’re fortunate that we’ve had a lot of family members who are Type O and have offered to donate a kidney to him, if needed,” she said.
Although Kathy isn’t able to donate one of her own kidneys to John, she never let go of the idea of donating one of her kidneys to someone else.
In the meantime, Kathy and John’s son, Josh, had gotten a job at the Panhandle Research Center feedlot north of Scottsbluff. He began working alongside Nabor Guzman of Scottsbluff, who’s been at the Panhandle Research Center for 36 years.
Josh found out that Nabor was also having problems with his kidneys. In fact, Nabor went on the kidney transplant list about four years ago. While waiting for a kidney, Nabor did dialysis at home for eight hours every day.
“I’ve kind of had a prostate problem for about 20 years,” Nabor said. “I was taking medication for that, but evidently, I wasn’t passing enough urine, and it backed up and ruined my kidneys. So, about four years ago I had a stent put in, and I do home dialysis every night at home. It takes about a half hour to get it set up and cleaned, and then I’ll let it run from about 8 at night to 4 in the morning.”
Having to do daily dialysis, Guzman said, can be tough at times.
“Most of the time, I feel like I’m functioning at about 80 percent. Sometimes it’s more about 70 percent. I get tired more easily than I used to because my kidneys aren’t working properly,” said Guzman, who pointed out that he appreciates the nurses at the DaVita Scottsbluff Dialysis Center for helping to take care of him the last few years. “It wears on you, but I try to keep a positive attitude.”
When Guzman was placed on the transplant list, he was told he might be on there for about three to five years, if not longer.
Over time, Josh learned more about Guzman’s kidney problems and how it was affecting his quality of life. In August, he talked to his mom about Guzman.
“He said, ‘Mom, Nabor looks like he’s suffering more from this than he lets on,’” Kathy said. “Josh told us that Nabor didn’t look like he was feeling too well and that he had to have dialysis every night, all night. Josh was worried about him. So, I said, ‘Well, let’s find out what type of blood he has, and I’ll see if I can donate a kidney to him.’”
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