"In sickness and in health": Pleasant Hills couple reflects one year after life-saving kidney transplant
Friday is Valentine's Day, but it's also National Donor Day. For a Pleasant Hills couple, it's also the day one year ago, when they started a life-saving journey at Allegheny General Hospital, where they learned the true meaning of in sickness and in health.
Nancy Brutt now realizes what it's like to live life without the suffering she experienced for so many years.
"I can do things that I couldn't do before. I can chase after my grandchildren," Nancy said. "I didn't realize how bad I actually felt."
In 1994, at the age of 32, she was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and knew with time, her condition would get worse. It came in January 2023, when her kidneys were only functioning at 20 percent.
Her doctor, Jennifer Carpenter, who is the surgical director of the Living Donor Kidney Transplant program at Allegheny General Hospital, said dialysis wasn't going to be a feasible option.
"At that point, a transplant is really the only option to ensure that they have a long, healthy life," Dr. Carpenter said.
Nancy and her husband, Mark, feared how long they would have to wait to get a kidney from a deceased donor, with 90,000 people in the country in the same boat as them.
Then, they learned about the National Kidney Registration Voucher Program, and at the same time, Mark was in the process of getting tested.
"I'm having this vision of, okay, I can do this. I can be tested. I can be a perfect match," Mark said.
Mark wasn't a match, but through the program, he was able to donate a kidney to someone else, and get a voucher for his wife, that she could turn in to get a kidney from a living donor.
"Push the button, and 24 hours later, they called up and said, 'We have a date to take your kidney. It's Valentine's Day,'" Mark said.
"It was pretty emotional, knowing that he would be that willing to, in essence, lay down his own life to help me with mine," Nancy said.
It didn't just mean Mark would be helping his wife, but also another family in the same situation as them.
Once Mark recovered, in March 2024, Nancy turned in her golden ticket.
"A week later, they called me and said, 'We have you a match,' and I was like, wait a minute, what happened to three to six months?" Nancy said.
Her surgery didn't come without complications, but about seven months later by October 2024, she fully recovered.
"I'm like, oh, this is the way this is supposed to be. Hey, I haven't felt this good in how many years? Because it literally was years," Nancy said.
Now 12 months after starting the transplant process, their relationship is stronger than ever, loving each other more every day.
"If I ever doubted if he loved me or not, I didn't doubt anymore," Nancy said.
"I don't have to get anything on Valentine's Day ever again," Mark said.
You can learn more about the National Kidney Registry Voucher Program here.
