Childhood friends get new lease on life thanks to directed kidney donation

Kate Shovel and Amber Sylvester have been friends for more than 35 years. They met going to school at Penn Hills in first grade and remained friends even after Shovel moved to Plum in high school.

They played softball together as teenagers and became really close.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Shovel was able to give Sylvester the ultimate gift when she donated a kidney to her lifelong friend.

Sylvester has been a diabetic since they were children.

“You kind of know you’re going to need one at some point when you have diabetes,” Shovel said.

So, Sylvester got on the list looking for a living donor and Shovel decided to apply as a directed donor. It was a long and arduous process.

“It was a very easy decision for me to make,” Shovel said. “She’s my closest friend and was not in good shape. It was a lot to consider, but we had to try and see if it would work. My quality of life does not change with having one kidney — but it changed hers drastically.

“They have to make sure I’m healthy enough to give a kidney and she’s healthy enough to get one.”

As such, both candidates go through multiple days of testing, which includes blood draws and numerous scans that matches up their blood type and the type of antibodies they have in order to limit the chance of organ rejection. They also have to go in front of a transplant board with all of their medical information, and the board ultimately decides if the transplant will move forward.

After being approved by the board, the pair headed to Montefiore Hospital in Oakland earlier this month, and following three hours of surgery, both Shovel and Sylvester came out of the experience healthy. Shovel said that so far, both are feeling well.

“She is well. She’s at home recovering and still working to figure out all of her medication,” Shovel said. “There’s a lot of meds.”

Shovel said that being able to do this for a friend was an extremely moving experience and one that’s meant a lot to her.

“If you are in a position to become a living donor for anybody, you should definitely consider it,” she said. “I didn’t prolong her life, I gave her a new life and that is extremely humbling and emotional and is a very personal thing between us. You can change someone’s life by doing this.”

Last year, more than 6,500 people became living donors, and the best way to be added to the list is to directly contact a transplant hospital. In the Pittsburgh area, UPMC, Allegheny General, Children’s Hospital, and the Pittsburgh Area VA Hospital are all qualified organ donation centers.