Woman makes life-saving decision to donate kidney
Last Updated:July 14. 2007 11:00PM
Published: July 15. 2007 3:30AM
Published: July 15. 2007 3:30AM
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BUY PHOTODANIEL GILES/TimesDaily
Donnnie Hammack talks with friend and fellow Waynesboro resident, Pam Melson, who will donate her kidney to him.
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Hammack, 46, has been on the national waiting list for a kidney transplant since July 2006.- Because of a tough decision from a close family friend, his wait has become a little shorter. The decision has also helped change a company's policy regarding organ donations and may lead to legislation to help future donors.
Hammack will receive a live donor kidney transplant in August.
The waiting game takes place every day, not only for Hammack, but also for thousands throughout the U.S.
There are 96,323 people on the national waiting list for organ donations as of April, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Of that, 70,870, like Hammack, are waiting for kidneys.
In 2006, 3,916 kidney patients died while waiting for transplants, according to the foundation.
But Hammack's close friend, Pam Melson, 31, didn't want to wait around and watch him become a statistic.
Perfect donor
When Melson ran into the Hammacks at the local dollar store in November, she learned that Donnie needed a kidney.
"I wanted to do anything possible to help," Melson said.
Melson says she first asked her supervisor, plant manager Doug Barnett, of Tennessee Apparel in Waynesboro, for permission to take time off from work so she could be tested.
She says he gave her the OK, making the decision to go forward with testing an easy one.
After extensive bloodwork, EKGs, urine samples and both social worker and surgeon interviews, doctors declared Melson's kidney a perfect match for Hammack's body.
The fact that Melson was not a family member surprised Vanderbilt doctors, who said Melson match was like that of a sibling.
"Matching like a sibling is not unusual for nonfamily, but he is still truly lucky," said Dr. Mark A. Wigger, director of the adult heart transplant program and multi-organ transplant physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Doctors set an initial surgery date for June 5 and Hammack thought his wait was finally coming to an end.
Roadblocks
It wasn't until Melson requested time off from work in May that she was faced with a decision that would eventually change policy at her workplace.
Tennessee Apparel officials sent a letter to Melson on May 22 denying her unpaid time off to go through with the surgery.
The company, headquartered in Tullahoma, Tenn., cited that the Family Medical Leave Act, which grants employees up to 12 weeks of leave for serious health conditions, did not apply to her situation.
"The unpaid leave off is only for immediate family," said Tennessee Apparel Vice President Dave Roberts.
Melson is not directly related to Hammack. Hammack's wife, Wileda, is a distant cousin to Melson's mother, Nell.
But Melson didn't look at the issue the same way that Barnett did.
"It's not blood that makes you kin," she said. "It's how you feel about that person that makes you kin," said Melson, who has known Hammack all her life.
When this roadblock came up, Wileda Hammack began an Internet search for any laws that would help Pam's case.
When she stumbled upon a 2005 amendment to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, she thought she'd found the answer.
The bill, cited as the "Living Organ Donor Job Security Act of 2005" calls for reasonable leave under FMLA for non-federal employees who provide living organ donations.
The amendment, however, never passed.
Doctors canceled the June 5 surgery date. Donnie would have to wait again.
High absenteeism
Tennessee Apparel offers company leave on a case-by-case basis, but Roberts said Melson didn't qualify for that because of her high absenteeism.
Melson acknowledged that she missed about a month of work in the past year.
She said the reason she had to miss work was to take care of her sick children.
Melson has a 14-year-old daughter, Lisa, and 9-year-old boy and girl twins, Jessie and Shania.
"I don't miss work unless I have to," she said. "All three of my kids had the flu at one point."
As the sole financial provider for her family, Melson could not risk her job security for the surgery.
When her husband, James, lost his job at a local store and was not able to find another job because he did not have a high school diploma or GED, Melson became the breadwinner.
Melson, who has worked for the company since January 2003, said Tennessee Apparel was one of the highest paying jobs in the area and had great employee benefits.
She said she planned to save money to be able to pay bills in advance while she was off for surgery.
Hammack encouraged Melson to keep her job so she could support her family.
"I told her not to worry about me," he said.
His doctors said he would be able to wait another two to five years without a transplant.
"Donnie was worried about me, and I was worried about Donnie," Melson said.
But Melson didn't want to wait and possibly watch her friend's health deteriorate any further: At 5 feet 5 inches tall, Hammack watched his weight rapidly decline, dropping from 165 pounds to a mere 125 pounds in a year.
Decision reversal
After Nashville newspaper The Tennessean and Nashville WKRN Channel 2 reported Melson's plight with her employer, Tennessee Apparel reversed its decision and granted Melson FMLA leave for organ donation even though it did not have a policy governing organ donations for non-family members.
Melson's request marked the first time that the issue was raised in more than 100 years of the company's history, according to a company release.
The government-contracted company makes military pants for the U.S. Marine Corps and Army. Melson's job is to sew the top cord on the back pockets. Those duties, now, would have to wait.
Waiting game
Waiting is something Hammack has had to adjust to all his life.
Hammack received his first transplant on May 22, exactly 19 years from the day that Melson received the initial denial letter from Tennessee Apparel.
He was 28 years old with congestive heart failure and had to wait seven weeks for a heart transplant in Huntsville.
"The waiting part is the hardest part of it," he said.
After the transplant, doctors prescribed anti-rejection medicines for Donnie to take for the rest of his life. He takes a daily cocktail of 15 different medicines, including painkillers.
One of those medicines, a cyclosporine that prevents the body's white blood cells from rejecting a transplanted organ, carries the risk of liver and kidney problems as well as high blood pressure.
But Hammack knew those risks and opted to have the heart surgery so he could continue his life.
After recovery, he was able to help coach his two kids in baseball and softball until his kidneys went into failure in July of 2006.
At that point, he had to begin traveling more than 100 miles to and from dialysis three times a week in Columbia, Tenn. He waits three hours during each visit for the process.
Dialysis helps the body remove waste, salt and excess water and helps maintain levels of potassium, sodium and bicarbonate in the body, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Because Hammack has to maintain strict dietary guidelines for his health, certain foods are off limits.
"The first thing I want to do (after the kidney transplant) is eat a tomato and a banana," he said.
Both fruits are high in potassium, which is a mineral that healthy kidneys regulate.
Donnie has a couple other plans that he can't wait to do once his transplant is complete.
New freedoms
Hammack has always been close to his family.
He and Wileda have been married 22 years and have two children: a daughter, Alecia, 20, who is studying to be a paramedic, and a son, D.J., 17.
"It is one of my wishes to be able to see my kids graduate from high school," Hammack said.
Alecia graduated in 2004, and D.J. is set to graduate next spring.
But Hammack also wants to be able to do a few things on his own after the kidney transplant.
For one, the transplant will free him from dialysis and enable him to spend more time with friends and family.
But he also can't wait to get back to a sport that he enjoys.
"I can't wait to get down to Texas and shoot a buck," he said of getting to go deer hunting again.
Melson couldn't be happier to be able to help her friend get back to enjoying life.
With the surgery about a month after Donnie's 47th birthday, Melson says she's giving the ultimate gift: life.
"I'm so thrilled to be able to do this for him and thankful that Tennessee Apparel is letting me do it," she said.
The Hammacks hope that their situation has caught the eyes of lawmakers who have the power to change policy.
"We want everybody to know that organ donation works," said Wileda. "We live in a volunteer state. We want that (federal) amendment off the desk so nobody else will have to wait
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