If you want to know what a miracle looks like, look at Vanessa Vassar. A rare and potentially deadly autoimmune-related disease called primary amyloidosis caused abnormal proteins to build up and form deposits on her kidneys, although the condition may attack and destroy any organ or wreak havoc throughout the body. The amyloid deposits keep the organs from working properly and causes them to deteriorate.
Shortly after her diagnosis in 2003, Vassar had a stem cell transplant and chemotherapy at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.
“They did a bone marrow biopsy to see if I had any trace of it,” Vassar said of the amyloid buildup. “They said you’d always have a trace.”
But she had no trace of the disease.
The disease eventually destroyed her kidneys. What it didn’t destroy was her positive outlook and the unwavering love and support from family and friends, who are like family.
“That’s a miracle too – I’ve never been on dialysis,” Vassar. “They’ve always wanted to do this,” she said about undergoing a kidney transplant.
“In ’06, I got really, really, sick – like 150 pounds of edema on top of my body weight, which was, at that time, 120,” she recalled. “I was in a wheel chair.”
She underwent paracentesis to take the fluid off through her abdominal wall.
“For six years after that, I really didn’t have any swelling,” she said.
The kidney transplant process started in 2006. Vassar said he never asked anyone for a kidney, but scores of people came forward to offer one of theirs – family, church and school friends, and people she’s known since childhood. Amazingly, she had lots of matches, but she really didn’t want a transplant – so Vassar said she put the breaks on everything.
She felt fine, but her kidney function levels were getting really bad. The donor matching process started again last fall.
“I didn’t have any choice, really,” Vassar said. “I had 5 percent kidney [function].”
Best friend Sara Wallace and another friend were both perfect matches, Vassar said. But when all was said and done, it was Paul Wallace, Sara’s husband, who gave one of his kidneys to Vanessa on February 14.
“She needed it,” Wallace said. “When my wife told me that she was going to need a kidney, I told her I wanted to test and we both came here and tested.”
The Wallaces live in Alton, Illinois and have three children, two of whom are young adults. They had a discussion about their children and decided donating a kidney is indeed what they wanted to do.
“The bottom line is, Vanessa needed a kidney, and our children probably won’t, Paul Wallace said. “And if it ever did happen, they have brothers and sisters, maybe a friend or someone like that who would be a match.”
“I really love them both,” Sara Wallace said of Paul and Vanessa.
“Paul is great—he’s a great husband – he’s a great father – he’s a great friend – he’s great with everybody and he is honest and wants to do the right thing always, and so that’s why we’re here, because it’s the right thing to do.”
Vanessa, who Sara describes as being more like family, has always been someone Sara could turn to for positive counsel.
“She has always led me in the direction I’ve needed to go like a big sister,” Sara Wallace said.
As with both families, Shirley Vassar, Vanessa’s mom, believes a wonderful, spiritual force has worked a mighty deed in all of their lives. “I think that if God can make a donkey talk, then he can help us through this and bless others.”
And one way Vanessa Vassar uses her blessing to bless others is by advocating for organ donation.
“I just really have a passion for people to donate organs,” Vassar said. “And I really would like to do some things like that after this.”
The latest figures from the National Kidney Foundation (July 2011) estimates 3,000 patients are added to the kidney donor waiting list each month. Out of more than 113,000 people are on waiting lists for organ donations, the Organ Procurement Network of the U.S. Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration data reports more than 91,000 are awaiting kidneys.
For more information about organ donation, visit www.unos.org
