Ultimate Father’s Day gift: Son donates kidney to save his dad’s life

Some dads would possibly get reward playing cards, steak dinners or new golf golf equipment for Father’s Day.

But Jose Calixto, 56, obtained one thing way more vital for the event this 12 months.

A number of weeks in the past, Jonathan Calixto, 30, saved his father’s life by donating a wholesome kidney.

“I by no means hesitated,” the son advised Fox Information Digital.

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Forward of Father’s Day weekend, father and son revealed how the operation modified their lives.

Straightforward resolution

Jose Calixto, a porter at a New York Metropolis constructing, realized he had kidney illness throughout a routine bodily 10 years in the past — an impact of medicines he took when he was youthful, he stated. 

He was capable of reside with the illness with out intervention for a number of years, however his situation took a flip for the more serious in mid-2021. Calixto was pressured to begin dialysis, a therapy that removes waste and toxins from the blood when the kidneys can’t do the job.

After two years of receiving dialysis 3 times per week, for 4 hours per session, Calixto had change into so frail and exhausted that he was pressured to retire from his job, he advised Fox Information Digital. 

Despite the dialysis, Calixto’s kidneys had been persevering with to fail. In the end, he was hospitalized.

A transplant was his solely possibility for long-term survival.

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On the time, Jonathan Calixto didn’t know a lot about what it meant to be a kidney donor, however the resolution to donate to his father was a no brainer for him, he stated.

“Dwelling donors actually have the power to vary a recipient’s life in a dramatic manner.”

To find out if the daddy and son had been a match, they each needed to undergo a litany of exams at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York Metropolis, which has a devoted transplant middle for kidney donors and recipients.  

Step one was to search out out whether or not the donor’s and recipient’s blood varieties had been appropriate.

This ensured the recipient would not instantly reject the kidney when it was positioned within the physique, defined Dr. Vinita Sehgal, Jose Calixto’s main kidney doctor at Mount Sinai.

Jose Calixto (left) and Jonathan Calixto are pictured at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on the morning of their surgical procedure. (Jose and Jonathan Calixto)

“When a donor and a recipient wouldn’t have appropriate blood varieties — for instance, if a donor with blood kind A desires to offer a kidney to a recipient with blood kind B — a paired trade, or ‘swap,’ could be organized with one other donor-recipient pair,” Dr. Sehgal defined to Fox Information Digital.

Subsequent, they did a histocompatability check, which checks to see if the pair’s tissues match. 

There was a 50% probability the Calixtos would have a tissue match.

This check appears at human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), molecules that make up an individual’s tissue kind.

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“A baby to a mum or dad is a 3/6 antigen match, which is a greater match than different, non-related donors,” defined Elaine Mitchell, Mount Sinai’s residing donor transplant coordinator. 

Which means there was a 50% probability the Calixtos would have a tissue match.

Dr. Antonios Arvelakis, Jose Calixto’s multi-organ transplant surgeon at Mount Sinai, stated he sees instances the place kids donate to folks and the place dad and mom give to kids.

Jose Calixto is pictured on his fifty fifth birthday along with his spouse, Rosario Calixto, in New York. (Jose Calixto)

“That is the best state of affairs versus getting a donor from a non-relative, as a result of they’re usually higher matched resulting from relation,” he defined to Fox Information Digital. 

Lastly, the Calixtos needed to do a serum cross-match, which is when the donor’s blood is blended with the recipient’s to verify there aren’t any antibodies that might consequence within the recipient’s immune system’s rejection of the transplant.

“Typically, particularly when persons are blood kinfolk, they might be very comparable genetically, and should even be what is known as a ‘excellent match,’” Sehgal stated. “This implies their immune system is much less prone to reject the brand new kidney.”

“For me, it was by no means a query. I knew that if I may get the prospect, I wished to do it.”

In February 2023, the Calixtos obtained the good information: Father and son had been a match on all fronts. The docs gave the inexperienced gentle for the donation course of to start. 

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Over the subsequent few weeks, the Calixtos every met with their groups of transplant surgeons and coordinators to make sure that each males had been wholesome and absolutely dedicated to the method.

Medical doctors repeatedly requested Calixto’s son whether or not he was positive he wished to undergo the organ donation.

Dad Jose Calixto is proven on the morning of his transplant surgical procedure at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York Metropolis. (Jose Calixto)

“They requested me so many instances: ‘Are you positive? Do you actually need to do that? Are you apprehensive about something?’” the son stated. 

“However for me, it was by no means a query. I knew that if I may get the prospect, I wished to do it.”

Along with his profession as a media host and editor simply beginning to take off, the youthful Calixto knew the surgical procedure may probably sluggish his progress — however serving to his dad turned his important focus.

“Jonathan was dedicated to his father from the very starting and did something essential to donate to him,” stated Mitchell of Mount Sinai.

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For Jose Calixto’s half, he was “not on board” initially, his son advised Fox Information Digital.

“He didn’t like the thought of somebody giving up a bit of their physique, particularly his son — it felt prefer it was going to chop my life in half, in a way,” Jonathan Calixto stated. “So he was hesitant about transferring ahead at first.” 

Calixto turned extra comfy with the thought — however was nonetheless extra involved about his son’s well being than his personal.

With extra time and analysis, Calixto turned extra comfy with the thought, however was nonetheless extra involved about his son’s well being than his personal.

Any kidney transplant comes with some extent of dangers — together with bleeding, an infection, graft failure and damaging reactions to the medicines, transplant surgeon Arvelakis stated. 

Jose and Jonathan Calixto are proven arriving at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York Metropolis on the morning of the transplant surgical procedure. (Jose and Jonathan Calixto)

However for the Calixtos, the docs described the process — which happened on March 29 — as “clean crusing.”

“Jonathan and Jose had no main problems — they each did very nicely,” Mitchell stated.

“Donors normally have a troublesome time initially, as they’re coming from a wholesome place to undergo surgical procedure.”

Added Mitchell, “Recipients normally really feel higher at first, however the therapeutic course of is extra of a curler coaster, as they take remedy to stop rejection and want monitoring twice weekly, initially.”

Calixto’s son was discharged the very subsequent day with no points, whereas Calixto got here residence three days after the surgical procedure. His physique accepted the donated kidney with no vital issues.

Recipients are monitored very intently after surgical procedure, Mitchell stated — twice per week for the primary month, as soon as per week for the second month and normally as soon as a month for the primary 12 months. 

Throughout these appointments, the docs test bloodwork to verify the kidney is functioning correctly and make any obligatory changes to medicines.

For the donors, post-surgery checkups are normally scheduled at six weeks, six months, one 12 months and two years, when docs will test blood stress, weight, bloodwork and urine. 

“Most individuals who obtain a kidney transplant are capable of reside regular lives so long as they take their medicines, comply with up with transplant groups and take precautions.”

After the two-year mark, donors ought to get annual checkups with their main care doctor, Mitchell stated.

“Most individuals who obtain a kidney transplant are capable of reside regular lives so long as they take their medicines, comply with up with their transplant groups and take sure precautions,” stated Sehgal.

‘One other probability at life’

Two months post-surgery, Calixto and his son are each recovering nicely and feeling good, they advised Fox Information Digital.

Calixto is totally off dialysis for the primary time in two years and is predicted to make a full restoration in about six months.

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Along with his new kidney, Calixto is now not weak and exhausted. His vitality and urge for food have skyrocketed, and he’s beginning to resume a few of the actions he couldn’t do whereas he was on dialysis, he stated. 

Most significantly, he has hope once more — hope that he’ll reside an extended and wholesome life, and that he’ll ultimately have the ability to return to work, he added.

“I’ve been given one other probability at life,” Calixto stated.

Within the meantime, Calixto’s son has returned to work and is feeling “again to regular,” he stated.

‘Dwelling donors are heroes’

For individuals affected by end-stage kidney illness like Calixto, kidney transplantation is the best-case state of affairs, Sehgal stated.

“Whereas individuals can reside with dialysis therapies for a few years, they usually reside for much longer, and are more healthy, with a kidney transplant,” she advised Fox Information Digital. 

“Staying on dialysis long-term will increase individuals’s dangers of coronary heart illness, circulatory issues, debility [weakness] and dying.” 

The wait time for a cadaver kidney (a donation from a deceased particular person) is usually between 4 and eight years within the New York space — and nationally, as much as half of individuals on the ready checklist will die with out ever receiving a transplant, Sehgal identified. 

“Dwelling donors actually have the power to vary a recipient’s life in a dramatic manner,” she stated.

“They’re heroes who’re actually giving the reward of life.”

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About half the kidney transplants which might be carried out at Mount Sinai annually come from residing donors, she added.

For different households affected by kidney failure, Jose and Jonathan Calixto wholeheartedly encourage donation as a life-saving and life-changing resolution.

“If in case you have a liked who’s going via kidney failure or is on dialysis, perhaps you could be the one who provides them one other probability at life,” Jose Calixto stated. “I understand how a lot it has meant to me.” (Jonathan and Jose Calixto)

“If in case you have a liked who’s going via kidney failure or is on dialysis, perhaps you could be the one who provides [that person] one other probability at life,” Calixto stated. “I understand how a lot it has meant to me.”

Each father and son are exceedingly grateful for the care they obtained at Mount Sinai.

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“I am tremendous grateful that they took care of us and had been capable of finding an excellent possibility, whereas maintaining us wholesome and protected,” Calixto’s son stated.