Published October 08, 2007
When Jamie Howard knocked on Paul Sucher's door in this southern Idaho city six months ago, he was trying to sell him a new vacuum cleaner. He ended up giving him one of his kidneys.
The chance encounter with Howard, 35, a traveling salesman from Idaho Falls for the Kirby Co., has given Sucher, also 35, a new lease on life - three years after his kidneys failed, saddling him with dialysis necessary to keep him alive.
Sucher, a businessman who makes car loans, says he's so healthy now following his surgery in August that it feels almost as if he never lost his own kidneys. Two months later, most of the color is back in his cheeks.
"It's truly a miracle," he said.
Sucher's chronic high-blood pressure caused his kidneys to fail 2 1/2 years ago, forcing costly medical care. Since then, he'd been waiting for a new kidney from a donor, but to no avail. That's why when Howard came to the family's door in Twin Falls this spring, the salesman was told they couldn't afford a new vacuum.
Howard learned Sucher's blood type: O-positive, the most common type.
Howard knew something else: He had O-positive blood, too.
"I went outside, prayed about it, called my dad and my wife," Howard remembers. "It was something I was called to do."
At the time, Sucher was on a waiting list at the University of Colorado in Denver with 500 others. Howard's decision to chip in one of his own kidneys - humans can live healthy lives with just one - helped speed the process.
Still, that didn't guarantee the operation would take place.
It took more than three months before the university's hospital would agree to the procedure.
First there was testing, which required flights to Denver. Donors can't have high blood pressure or diabetes. In addition, the hospital wanted to make sure Howard hadn't demanded payment.
Federal law makes it illegal to sell human organs and tissue in the United States.
Earlier this summer, the hospital asked the men to wait another year for the surgery. Sucher persuaded officials to do it sooner, pointing out that the only people making money off the $250,000 surgery were the hospital surgeons.
"I said, 'Look, lady. My life's on the line. I don't have a year to wait,'" he remembers.
Since the operation, Sucher's weight has stabilized and his blood pressure is under control, thanks in part to his new kidney. Howard thinks more healthy people would donate if they knew what he does now: it's less painful than he thought.
Finding a live donor is better than counting on a tragedy before a replacement kidney can be found, Sucher said.
"You're waiting for a dead man's kidney," he said. "There's never enough."
When Jamie Howard knocked on Paul Sucher's door in this southern Idaho city six months ago, he was trying to sell him a new vacuum cleaner. He ended up giving him one of his kidneys.
The chance encounter with Howard, 35, a traveling salesman from Idaho Falls for the Kirby Co., has given Sucher, also 35, a new lease on life - three years after his kidneys failed, saddling him with dialysis necessary to keep him alive.
Sucher, a businessman who makes car loans, says he's so healthy now following his surgery in August that it feels almost as if he never lost his own kidneys. Two months later, most of the color is back in his cheeks.
"It's truly a miracle," he said.
Sucher's chronic high-blood pressure caused his kidneys to fail 2 1/2 years ago, forcing costly medical care. Since then, he'd been waiting for a new kidney from a donor, but to no avail. That's why when Howard came to the family's door in Twin Falls this spring, the salesman was told they couldn't afford a new vacuum.
Howard learned Sucher's blood type: O-positive, the most common type.
Howard knew something else: He had O-positive blood, too.
"I went outside, prayed about it, called my dad and my wife," Howard remembers. "It was something I was called to do."
At the time, Sucher was on a waiting list at the University of Colorado in Denver with 500 others. Howard's decision to chip in one of his own kidneys - humans can live healthy lives with just one - helped speed the process.
Still, that didn't guarantee the operation would take place.
It took more than three months before the university's hospital would agree to the procedure.
First there was testing, which required flights to Denver. Donors can't have high blood pressure or diabetes. In addition, the hospital wanted to make sure Howard hadn't demanded payment.
Federal law makes it illegal to sell human organs and tissue in the United States.
Earlier this summer, the hospital asked the men to wait another year for the surgery. Sucher persuaded officials to do it sooner, pointing out that the only people making money off the $250,000 surgery were the hospital surgeons.
"I said, 'Look, lady. My life's on the line. I don't have a year to wait,'" he remembers.
Since the operation, Sucher's weight has stabilized and his blood pressure is under control, thanks in part to his new kidney. Howard thinks more healthy people would donate if they knew what he does now: it's less painful than he thought.
Finding a live donor is better than counting on a tragedy before a replacement kidney can be found, Sucher said.
"You're waiting for a dead man's kidney," he said. "There's never enough."
