New Lenox woman received donor kidney from a stranger

NEW LENOX – In early 2014, a Facebook friend of Kellie Lonchar, 51, of Ohio shared a post from a New Lenox woman seeking a kidney donor.

Lonchar, widowed at a young age when she had three small children, scrolled through the comments assuring the woman – Michelle Doyle – of prayers and well-wishes.

But Lonchar, who also had the rare Type O-negative blood Doyle had, thought she needed to do more.

“Her story resonated with me, and I could not stop thinking about this woman,” Lonchar said. “I don’t know why.”

On Sept. 30, Lonchar met Doyle. On Oct. 2, Lonchar donated one of her kidneys to Doyle and saved her life.

Virtual call for help

By January 2014, Doyle’s surgeon warned her she was a ticking time bomb. She no longer had any kidneys, and her doctor told her she needed to turn to social media to help find a live donor. She needed to stop worrying people might pity her.

So – reluctantly – Doyle did. She is humbled at Lonchar’s generosity and called her amazing.

“She’s like the sister I never knew,” Doyle said.

Looking back, Doyle said she knew her kidneys were in trouble, but she didn’t want to admit it. Her grandmother, Lorraine Steinquist, (deceased) had begun hemodialysis when she was 45 for polycystic kidney disease.

Doyle’s mother, Cheryl Doyle, also was 45 when she began dialysis. Fifteen years ago, Pam Vanderbilt of New Lenox, Cheryl’s neighbor, donated one of her kidneys to Cheryl. One of Doyle’s uncles also had a kidney transplant, also for polycystic kidney disease.

According to the National Institutes of Health, www.niddk.nih.gov, polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disease in which cysts form in the kidney and fill with fluid, causing the kidneys to enlarge and leading to possible kidney failure.

But when back pain began when Doyle was 24, she attributed it to working out. When her abdomen enlarged, Doyle blamed it on middle-age spread. Her nocturnal shortness of breath was from anxiety, she decided. But it was so bad that Doyle made a doctor’s appointment for blood work.

Emergency situation

On Oct. 6, 2011, Doyle was at the gym with her fiance, Mike Tomaska, when she received a phone call from her doctor. Get to the hospital now, the message said. You are in end-stage renal failure.

The blood work for Doyle’s kidneys was so bad, the doctor couldn’t believe the number, Doyle said. So Doyle – who is terrified of needles – and Tomaska went to the hospital. A permanent catheter was put into her chest, and dialysis was begun.

“The next morning, I felt like a million dollars,” Doyle said.

Doyle was trained on how to do peritoneal dialysis at home, meaning she was connected to a machine for 11 hours each night. In March, Doyle’s kidneys were removed. Doyle said they were the size of newborn babies, pressing against her heart and lungs, causing her breathing difficulties.

“That was the last time I urinated for almost three years,” Doyle said.

Doyle went back on hemodialysis. Because she had no kidneys, her fluid intake was limited to 24 ounces a day. One day, during dialysis, Doyle had a sudden explosive headache. She was wheeled to the emergency department. Doyle had a bleed in her brain’s frontal lobe.

She was transferred to Loyola Medical Center, Doyle said, where doctors monitored her while the blood was reabsorbed.

“Then I went back to living as normal of a life as I could,” Doyle said.

Running out of options

Doyle’s mother, Cheryl, called those pretransplant days “scary times.”

“It was very hard for my husband [Terry] to see our daughter go through what we had gone through with me and my mother,” Cheryl said. “It’s one of those things you never want to see your children go through. She had a lot of complications.”

Relying on hemodialysis keeps one alive, Doyle said, while it slowly kills. By January 2014, Doyle no longer was working or driving. Reluctantly, Doyle posted her need for a live donor kidney on Facebook.

If Doyle hadn’t, Tomaska doubts Doyle would be alive today.

“She’s gone through hell and high water, but she’s a strong girl,” he said. “I don’t think too many people could have gone through it and have the attitude she has.”

Altogether, Doyle said she had 30 surgeries and procedures. She is back at the gym with Mike and gradually is building up her fitness.

In April, after Doyle and Lonchar had their six-month check-up, they went to dinner. Finally, Doyle could look her savior in the eye and ask why she had done it.

Lonchar still doesn’t have an answer, but said she would make the same decision again. Because Lonchar can’t wrap her mind around the magnitude of saving someone’s life, she had one request for Doyle.

“She introduces me to everyone she knows as, ‘This is Kellie, the one that gave me her kidney,’ ” Lonchar said. “Can’t I just be Kellie your friend?”

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IF YOU GO

WHAT: Benefit for Michelle Doyle

WHEN: 3 to 9 p.m. May 30

WHERE: American Legion Harwood Post 5, 705 S. Larkin Ave., Joliet

COST: $15 (adults) and $5 (children 10 and under). Includes food. Cash bar only.

ETC: Music provided by Toplist Karaoke with Cheryl. Silent auction, raffles for adults and children

DONATE: Lincoln-Way Community Bank, 1000 E. Lincoln Highway, New Lenox. Make checks payable to Michelle Doyle Benefit.

VISIT: www.facebook.com/events/1587605904820001.