Almost two years ago, Executive Assistant to the CNO and vice president for recruiting at MCH Mary Helen Sanchez couldn’t stand seeing her brother Ralph Sanchez struggle.
Ralph was in need of a new kidney after suffering kidney failure.
He had been on the waiting list for two years and ended up at the Medical Center Health System’s Cath Lab for a blockage.
After that, she knew she had to step in.
Two years since her brother’s life-saving transplant and he is now doing much better.
Both siblings were at MCH Thursday for the Donor Memorial Service which was held to recognize local and employee donors Thursday at the Donor Garden located outside Wheatley Stewart Medical Pavilion.
The event was held in honor of National Donate Life Month and put on by the Life Champion Committee at MCHS.
Mary and Ralph shared their stories to the media after Thursday’s event. She talked about how she originally tried to persuade him to let her donate one of her kidneys.
“When my brother was diagnosed with kidney failures, we talked about it,” Mary said. “I asked him if he first if he wanted me to donate to him because I told him that we were siblings and that we matched. But he said no. Then, two years passed and then he’s having heart failure and everything. I asked him again and my sister-in-law. I had already talked to my family about me wanting to donate a kidney to him. We decided that we were going to do it. The process took a year and a half.”
For Mary, the sight of seeing her brother struggle with kidney failures was difficult.
“It was just hard for me to see my brother going through the things that he was going through with dialysis and everything,” Mary said. “I wouldn’t see him every day but mother would talk about what he was going through. It was very heart-wrenching.”
The kidney transplant took place in October of 2021.
After going in for follow-up checkups, Mary says Ralph is doing better.
“It’s when I see people that ask me about him, that’s when I feel good because when they ask me about him and it makes me feel good that I did this for him and I get to see him more,” Mary said.
Ralph also talked about how thankful he is for his sister’s help.
“I just want to say that my sister put it on herself to do this,” Ralph said. “I didn’t want anyone to have to do this for me. But no one told me that I was being selfish. I really appreciate her for doing it now. I feel good and everything is going great. I went in for my checkup the other day and everything is going great.”
He said the reasoning for originally rejecting Mary’s offer of a transplant was because he didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. However, those fears were soon subsided as he said he was soon convinced by the hospital that she would be fine.
“She’s the youngest of our family,” Ralph said. “The way I thought was what if something goes wrong with her because she has two young daughters. But the hospital explained that if something went wrong with her, they would find her a kidney right away. That really helped me relax.”
Co-chair of the Donate Life Committee at MCHS Larissa Guevara spoke about the importance of donating.
“As you know, organ donation is something truly unrecognized in our community,” Guevara said. “We don’t really give credit to those who became donors. We see the after story. But we like to look at donation as the beauty in the midst of a tragedy. Someone has to lose their life for someone to gain life but to me that’s the beauty of it all. Yes, there’s a person that lost their life, but through donation, they can save up to eight other lives.”
She also took the time to dispel some myths about organ donations.
“I would just like everyone to understand that there are lots of myths about organ donations,” Guevara said. “One common myth that we get is that if you’re a registered organ donor, the hospital won’t do what’s in their power to save you and I would love to break that myth. That’s not true. There’s definitely so much other testing that’s done in whether someone becomes a candidate for donation. To me, education is key in all of that. Making educated decisions is the most important thing you can do.”
Mary encourages everyone to be a donor.
“I think it is very important to be a donor because you save their life,” Mary said. “That’s what my sister-in-law told me, that I was going to save his life. Any chance you get, donate. I’ve always been a donor. I love to give help if I can. I advise anyone that can to donate. It’s an awesome experience.”
