By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Meredith Sarver wanted to donate a kidney to her father, Glen Kliewer. Their blood types didn’t match, so she couldn’t. But that wasn’t the end of the story.

When they traveled to Research Medical Center in Kansas City for testing, they learned about a paired donation program.

They could register as a pair and be linked with similar pairs. Meredith could donate a kidney to a recipient in a one pair, and a donor in another pair could donate a kidney to Glen.

Computer software identifies potential donor and recipient matches. Then a set of matches are grouped together to create a chain from which exchanges can be determined.

Organ donation isn’t unfamiliar to Meredith, who is a registered nurse. Her first job was on a transplant floor at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita.

Still, when she was invited to enter the living donor program with her father, she hesitated for several months.

Paired donations seemed complicated, but after learning more about them, she decided to join in February.

She and her father were grouped with two other pairs.

One donor’s kidney went to Glen. Meredith’s kidney went to another recipient in the chain.

Glen also was placed on a waiting list for a liver transplant last fall. Meredith qualified as a donor March 15.

Glen received his new kidney June 18, and Meredith donated her kidney on June 24.

Glen, 69, got a kidney from a man of the same age. Meredith, 36, gave a kidney to a 20-year-old recipient.

The live donation allowed Glen to get his kidney quicker than he otherwise would have.

He was told that the average waiting time was five years, but with Type O blood, his wait probably would have been longer.

With the live donation, he was able to avoid dialysis. He still has his old kidneys because, according to the surgeon, leaving them in was less traumatic than removing them.

Meredith’s laparoscopic procedure allowed for quick recovery. She spent one night in the hospital and was back in church the following Sunday.

She is not on any medication. She recently had a three-week checkup and won’t have another for six months.

Glen’s recovery is slower because he must take a slew of drugs to keep his body from rejecting the new kidney.

The kidney started working immediately, he said. By the time he was dismissed from the hospital four days later, his numbers were normal.

Drug doses will be reduced as time goes on. He goes for lab work twice a week.

“I feel like I’ve recovered pretty good from the surgery,” he said, “but the meds have some side effects.”

He often feels lightheaded and shaky and has low energy but expects to improve with time.

Meredith is happy she became a kidney donor, even if her kidney didn’t go to her father.

“I realized I’m giving my dad a gift, but I’m also giving someone else a gift,” she said. “It was a double blessing.

“There’s a lot that can go wrong in the future, but this is right now. And if it gives my dad a better life, I’m willing to do it.”

Meredith’s husband, Caleb, supported her decision. They have two children — Lucy, 7, and Cameron, 4.

She was a nurse at Hays Medical Center for 10 years and continues to work remotely part time.

The couple moved to Hillsboro two months before her father was put on a waiting list for a kidney.

Glen farms north of Hillsboro. He finished combining wheat the evening before he went to Kansas City for the transplant. He plans to continue farming. His operation includes fall crops and cattle.