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Methodist Dallas Medical Center
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Winter 2014 – 2015
Donnie Campbell and Ronny Golden have
a lot more in common than rhyming first
names. Both are hardworking men in their
50s with supportive families. Both are drawn
to the hum of a well-oiled engine: Donnie
to cars, Ronny to motorcycles. And both
considered themselves relatively healthy
before renal failure changed their lives.
Ronny’s kidneys were damaged by an
autoimmune disease. For Donnie, it was
diabetes and high blood pressure.
Spending hours each week hooked up to
blood-filtering dialysis machines became
a routine part of life as each man worked
and waited — Donnie in Tyler, Texas,
Ronny in Elm Grove, Louisiana — hoping
for a new kidney.
“It was a commitment, three days
a week, four to five hours each time,”
says Donnie, who was on dialysis for
20 months. “But it gives you life so you
have time to wait for a kidney.”
Besides loss of energy, dialysis required
other sacrifices. Donnie had less energy to
Strangers united by an incredible gift
spend with his grandson. Ronny had to
back off riding motorcycles.
“It wears on you,” Ronny says of his
3½ years of dialysis. “But as one doc told
me, ‘Dialysis is only a bridge. On the other
side is either a kidney or death.’”
The bridge to new life
On Easter Sunday, Ronny and Donnie
each received a call from Methodist
Dallas. Both were matched to receive a
new kidney from the same donor and
headed to Dallas for surgery the
next day.
“Everyone at Methodist was so happy,”
Ronny’s wife, Sharon, recalls. “When we
heard it was a match, everyone was crying
and hugging.”
“Ronny has our donor’s right kidney,
and I have the left one,” Donnie says. “But
for us, they are both the right one.”
The former strangers — now linked by
a unique bond — started planning annual
get-togethers. As they regain their health,
they remain thankful for the excellent care
they received at Methodist Dallas — and
to their donor’s family.
“That family lost someone, but they
blessed two people,” Donnie says. “They
blessed two families.”
Donnie Campbell (above) and Ronny Golden (above right) formed a
unique bond when they each received a kidney from the same donor.
Ronny Golden and his wife, Sharon, are grateful to
the donor's family for the gift that saved two lives.
— Continued from page 9
Donnie Campbell (left) and Ronny
Golden (right) received kidneys
from the same donor. “That family
lost someone, but they blessed two
people,” Donnie says.