Siblings' Organ Gifts Save Sisters

When 16 people die every day waiting for an organ donation, any transplant can be seen as miraculous.

But one family, as The Early Show correspondent Tracy Smith found out, experienced two miracles -- or maybe even four.

Like many Boston families, the Jacksons love a lobster bake. For Linda and her sister Valerie, family time is even more precious now, because they've survived a killer disease they inherited from the person who brought them into the world.

Like a star in her own small-screen movie, Marjorie Jackson lived a picture-perfect life. The camera captured her fairytale wedding to George Jackson, a power company manager. Children followed: first, daughter Linda was born. And three years later, baby Valerie was added to the family.

For the Jacksons, life was a happy montage of vacations, birthday parties and Easter bonnets. But in 1972, on an evening out with friends, their cozy world would be shattered by something no one saw coming.

George Sr. remembered that night: "It was about 10:30 at night and we'd just finished eating. We danced sat down and had a drink and she just keeled over. So when that happened, I kind of shook her and I said, 'What are you doing? You're embarrassing me.'"

When Marjorie didn't respond, she was rushed to the hospital. But, it was too late to save her.

"I knew something was wrong and I opened the door and I said, 'My mother's dead,'" Linda said. "Nobody knew how I knew that I could just sense it."

Thirty-five-year-old Marjorie Jackson died of a cerebral aneurysm, a complication of polycystic kidney disease or PKD. She never knew she had it or that she had passed it on to both of her daughters, who eventually would also be in danger of dying before their time.

George Jackson was still grieving when he met Mary Lou Capaviella.

"I was glad it happened, but it wasn't love at first sight," he said. "I was kind of in a tough state with my first wife dying."

But within a year, George and Mary Lou were married, and soon the couple had two children together — George Jr. and Renee. The two youngest members of the family would become lifesavers. But they didn't realize it until 20 years later — when Linda was suffering from the kidney disease she inherited from her mother.

"I needed a kidney," she said. "Either that or dialysis, and I refused to do dialysis [because] it scared me more than the fact of being sick."

Of all potential kidney donors, the best genetic match turned out to be her half brother, George Jr. And he jumped at the chance to help her sister.

"Of course I'd do it for her," he said. "I didn't bat an eyelash."

Seven years later, Valerie, who also inherited PKD, needed a transplant of her own. Sure enough, the perfect donor turned out to be her younger half-sister Renee.

"It's not like giving blood, it's not like having a tooth pulled," Valerie said. "It's major surgery. You can't just step up and say 'I'm willing to donate.'"

But Renee never wavered and she responded: "You can say, 'I love you,' to someone. You can say, 'Oh, I'd do anything for you.' But to actually be able to say, 'I will do anything for you and here we go.' It's different to be able to say 'Here's my kidney. I'll prove it to you. I'll prove how much I love you and I would do anything for you.'"

Today, Renee and George are healthy. Linda and Valerie are grateful to be alive, plus they give their birth mother Marjorie credit for giving them life — not once, but twice.

"If she didn't leave at that point, my father wouldn't have met Lou and he wouldn't have been remarried," Linda explained. "And my brother and sister wouldn't be born, and it's just like a cycle."

The disease that struck the Jackson family is not unusual. PKD is the most common, genetic life-threatening disease — affecting 600,000 people in the United States, many who are still waiting for kidney donors.