A gift of life and love ~ January 26, 1989

David Heiller

Alice Dracy, Bruno, called the American office last Friday to tell about her son, Steve, and her daughter, Diane, and something they now share. The story is worth sharing, too.

Steven Dracy, lifted from
the newspaper.

On Jan. 12, Steven, who lives in Sandstone, donated one of his kidneys to his sister, Diane Dracy Buehre, at the Methodist Hospital in Rochester.

“Diane was diagnosed with kidney disease as a child and her condition had progressed to the point that a transplant was necessary,” Mrs. Dracy said. Her kidneys were removed on November 22.

Diane’s three brothers, Steve, Dennis, and Ron, all volunteered to donate a kidney to their sister. (Doctors prefer donated kidneys from living relatives when possible.)

Tests of the three brothers showed perfect compatibility between Diane and Steve.

“I was like an identical twin, seven years later,” said Steve, 29. “Our chromosomes were a 100 percent match.”

Steve admitted that he was startled about the operation at first. “But then when it came right down to it, it had to be done,” he said. “She was getting worse right along.”

On Jan. 18, just six days after a kidney was removed, Steve was released from the hospital. He is recovering at the Dracy farm in Bruno now, while looking after his place in Sandstone.

The loss of a kidney hasn’t affected Steve physically at all. He feels normal and will be able to continue working as a pipe layer for Lake Area Utilities, Hugo.

For Diane, 36, the new kidney will be like starting life over. Without the kidney, she would be facing a life of dialysis treatments, and 56-mile trips from her home in Brookings, South Dakota, to Sioux Falls, three days a week. She left the hospital only nine days after the transplant, and will return to her husband, Tom, and their two sons, Scott and Eric, in a month.

Diane expects to be back at her full-time job as secretary at South Dakota State University by May, or sooner.

Has this exchange of kidneys made Diane and Steve closer? Says Steve: “I haven’t really been with her that much after (the operation), but I’m sure it will make us closer.”

Says Diane: “There’s got to be a subtle change there somewhere. Nobody could possibly understand how Scott would be willing to do this. There’s just a wealth of love there. It’s some-thing inside, more intangible, more emotional.”

In these days of modern medical technology, kidney transplants are barely newsworthy, except in newspapers like the Askov American. But you don’t have to look too far back to see our amazing medical progress. I know this personally—my father died in 1953 from kidney failure. If he had been born a generation later, he wouldn’t have died at age 37. Maybe one of his eight brothers or sisters would have set him free. That’s what Diane says Steve did for her.

And this act of love is something Steve Dracy and Diane Beuhre will share for the rest of their lives. What better gift could there be?