The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Why Black Folk, in Particular, Should Consider Donating Organs.

- Tomika Anderson

Sometimes love has the power to be lifesaving in ways one could never expect. Just ask Spring, Texas-based human resources manager Dwight Deserne. Five years after he accepted his wife Renee’s hand in marriage following their whirlwind romance, he accepted one of her kidneys. Diagnosed at birth with undersized kidneys and plagued with a debilitating illness since, Dwight, now 43, initially refused his bride’s love offering though it was a perfect genetic match. But as he grew sicker and realized his waiting list kidney might not come in time, he caved.

“I begged her not to do it,” he says. “Renee is five years younger than me and relatively healthy; I didn’t want to take any possible received transplants.chances that she could be putting her own health at risk. Fortunately, she paid no attention to me,” Dwight says, laughing. “She went right on over to Methodist hospital in Houston—probably one of the best facilities in the world for kidney transplants—did the workup and got a date. We had our surgeries right before Christmas. As a result, my breathing is better, my food tastes better and I haven’t had this much energy since I was 14 years old. My body is just getting what it needs. The best gift ever.”