Comment on Kidney transplant canceled days before surgery

NEW HANOVER COUNTY -- For Williams Elementary instructional assistant JoAnn Schettig, Tuesday would have been a day of anxiousness but also of excitement. Schettig was set to go into surgery to remove a kidney -- not to save her own life, but the life of another. Last year, a co-worker Aidimar Richardson’s 16-year-old daughter Alex Brigantti was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, and doctors at the University of North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hill recommended a kidney transplant. When Schettig heard about her co-worker’s plight for her daughter and found out she was the same blood type, she went to speak with her own family to talk about becoming a living donor. Schettig said her uncle received a heart from a donor over a decade ago and after witnessing the struggle her family went through during the waiting process she knew donors are necessary. With her husband and sons’ support she moved forward with the process to find out if she could donate. After months of testing, it was found that Schettig was a match for Brigantti, and the two’s surgeries -- one to remove an organ and one to gain a new one -- were set for Tuesday. But after pre-op testing earlier this week, the families received devastating news. Results found that Schettig and Brigantti were no longer a good match, and the transplant was canceled. Dwain Cooper, a community relations coordinator with Carolina Donor Services, said he could not speak to what exactly caused the results so close to the surgery, but added that there are many variables that go into finding the best match for a person. That is why you cannot go off exactly what number you are on the waiting list, he said. “Transplants are done with the person that is going to be the best match for you,” Cooper said.