First my heart, next my kidney
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| Scott (left) and Diana Piper pose for a photo in their rural Princeton home. Scott has been accepted as a kidney donor for his wife, Diana, who has been undergoing dialysis for the past year. (BCR photo/Donna Barker) |
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PRINCETON — Scott Piper says he’s already given his wife his heart ... and now it’s time to give her his kidney.
As they sat in their home in rural Princeton, Scott and Diana talked about the journey which led them to this place of Diana needing a kidney transplant and how Scott was finally approved as a donor.
In 1987, Diana was in a traffic accident which claimed the life of her first husband, Jim Hanna, and their son, Jimmy. Her daughter, Amy, was severely injured in the accident and remained in a coma for five years before her death. Diana was also severely injured in the accident, which complicated by high blood pressure, resulted in time in the removal of her left kidney.
In 1995, about three years after she and Scott had married, Diana started having severe pain and problems with her one remaining kidney. She went to a Rockford specialist who told her to watch her diet, and she would be fine. But she wasn’t. Things got worse. About four years ago, she went to a specialist at the OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, who determined Diana’s remaining kidney was functioning at only 20 percent. And the specialist said it was her high blood pressure, rather than her diet, that caused the damage to her remaining kidney.
The Peoria specialist said if Diana’s kidney function got below 20 percent, she would need to go on dialysis, which happened a year ago. Diana now has dialysis three times a week, for four hours each day, at the Fresnius Medical Center in Spring Valley. Working her way through fistulas, grafts and catheters have been her experience for the past year.
From the beginning of this journey when she learned her remaining kidney wasn’t working well, she knew she wanted to be placed on a kidney transplant list. And from the start, Scott wanted to see if he could be the donor.
“I told her I gave her my heart, why not give her a kidney,” Scott said.
Though he was tested early and found to be a match, Scott wasn’t accepted as a donor because of a previous heart condition and surgery. Also, the transplant team was hesitant to have both parents under a surgery like this, unless it was absolutely necessary, Scott said. The Pipers have an eighth-grade son, D.J., and a sixth-grade daughter, Chelsea.
But Scott didn’t give up on the possibility of becoming a donor for his wife. During his annual checkup with his heart doctor last year, Scott passed all tests with flying colors. His doctor gave him a clean bill of health and offered to contact the kidney transplant team to let it know Scott’s heart was healthy and could handle the transplant surgery.
A week ago, the transplant team agreed to use Scott as the donor for his wife. The logistics of that surgery will be determined in the coming days and hopefully be performed before the end of March, so he has time to recover before he is called back to work at Advanced Asphalt, Scott said.
As far as the expenses of the past several years, the upcoming surgeries and ongoing medical treatments, Scott said he’s fortunate to have good insurance, but there are still a lot of other expenses which are incurred. Because of a time filing issue, his wife has been denied disability coverage. To help with expenses, the family is setting up a medical expense account at Citizens First National Bank in Princeton for anyone wanting to help the family with their expenses.
Looking at the lessons of the past few years, the Pipers encourage people to consider becoming an organ donor. Peoples’ lives and the lives of families depend upon it, they said.
When asked how they have gotten through not just the physical and financial drain of the past years, but also the emotional strain, the Pipers looked at each and smiled. It has been their children that has kept them going and focused on making it through another day.
Diana said she prays every night that she will get her health back, so she will be the mom she wants to be for her kids. With that goal in mind, and with the help of her husband as her donor, there should be better days ahead, she said.
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