ORGAN AND TISSUE DONOR AWARENESS MONTH
Kidney transplant saves a life – and creates an activist
When Dick Watkins started feeling sick back in 1999, he couldn’t have imagined what was to come.
“I started getting real sick and real tired – I was just wore out all the time. My diabetes doctor sent me to a neurologist and he found out I was losing my kidney function. It was down to 15 percent,” said the UAW Local 23 retiree.
“That was the furthest thing from my mind.”
At the time he was 50 and had 33 years in at GM’s Indianapolis Metal Center. His biggest health issue was the diabetes he got from contact with Agent Orange during his Army tour of duty in Vietnam in 1969.
“That started it all and contributed to everything I’ve got,” he said.
While he made his way up the list for a kidney transplant, he spent 18 months on dialysis at home with his wife, Carol Ann, as his caretaker.
He retired in 2001, the same year he had his transplant surgery in June. He was in the operating room for nine hours. And six days later he was coaching in a softball tournament.
His team placed third in a 40-team city tournament, but after that it took a good six months to recover from the surgery.
That’s when he and Carol Ann started making the rounds giving talks and showing films to promote organ donation. Among their stops were high schools to reach students who were about to get their driver’s licenses. “We told them how from one tragic accident, you could save somebody’s life,” he said.
Dick Watkins owes his life to 33-year-old Missy Lee, who died in surgery for an acoustic neuroma behind her ear. He and Carol Ann met Missy’s parents, Jack and Marilyn Bentz, through the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization.
“It was quite a stirring event,” he said. The two families have blended in many ways, going to high school graduations, grandchildren’s sporting events and even a family reunion.
“Dick and I haven’t had a grandmother for years,” said Carol Ann. “Missy’s grandmother is still alive so now we have a grandmother.”
Because Missy was an organ donor, seven people received organs from her, and some of her skin was donated.
“We were already good friends with the woman who got Missy’s liver,” Carol Ann added. “Now she and Dick call each other brother and sister.”
