Twenty years ago, organ transplant was still in the dark ages compared to where things are today. Bob and Maxine Fink of Union, MO know this better than anybody when they drive to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis for checkups with transplant coordinators. "They call us the ''Old Pioneers,''" says Maxine.
To celebrate their status as "Old Pioneers," staffers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital threw a party for the 20th anniversary of what was then radical medicine.
Bob Fink, now 76, suffered from kidney failure and the dialysis treatment keeping him alive was doing serious damage to his heart. His physician at the time told Bob he had three months to live and was too weak for transplant. Bob and his wife, Maxine, disagreed.
"My cardiologist told me to spend the next three months as comfortably as possible," recalls Bob. "Fortunately Dr. Anderson said he could get me off the table."
That would be Dr. Charles Anderson, at the time a pioneering transplant surgeon at the former Barnes Hospital. He felt he could save Bob''s life through a new procedure. A kidney transplant from a living donor not related by blood to the recipient was a new and rare procedure, due to unsure long-term outcomes for the recipient and donor. Feeling that it was Bob''s only hope, Dr. Anderson successfully transplanted Maxine''s kidney into Bob on June 26, 1984 -- only the second time the procedure had been performed at Barnes.
"It was unusual because it was non-related," says Dr. Anderson, now retired and living in St. Louis. "It was a very new idea at that time."
Dr. Anderson and numerous staffers who cared for the Finks during their 1984 hospital stay attended the party. Kathy Howard, RN, currently serves as the Fink''s transplant coordinator at Barnes-Jewish, but 20 years ago was a staff nurse on the floor who cared for Bob and Maxine.
Looking at photos the Finks brought with them to show how their lives have changed over the last two decades, Howard said those pictures said a thousand words.
"He''s seen his children have children and danced at his granddaughter''s wedding. If Maxine had not donated to Bob the last twenty years for him would not have happened," says Howard.
"People don''t realize what an impact donation has," says Howard, "Seeing Bob and Maxine share a moment like this shows you how important organ donation is."
Barnes-Jewish Hospital now averages 100-110 kidney transplants each year. About 40 percent are from living donors. About one quarter of those are donors who, like the Finks, are not blood relatives.