Patient Spotlight Joe Bailey MD, Kidney Transplant At the Center for Transplant Services, we get to experience the gift of life on a regular basis. Recently, Dr. Joe Bailey of Johnson City came in for his annual check-up. It’s been five years since Mary Bell, a then-stranger, donated one of her kidneys to him and saved his life. “I saw a story on the news about a schoolteacher who needed a kidney,” Mary said, “and I thought ‘I’m retired, I’m a widow, my kids are grown. I have two perfectly functioning kidneys. I could do this.’” As she continued to think more about it, Mary concluded that it wasn’t just something she could do, it was something she needed to do. For 57-year-old Dr. Bailey, waiting had become agonizing. With Stage V kidney failure, he was on dialysis, which often lasted 12 hours at a time. Vascular Surgeon Oscar Grandas, MD said, “‘We’ll get you a kidney.’ We were overjoyed,” said Bailey.
Dr. Bailey and his wife, Cyndi, waited a long time. They kept a suitcase packed by the door for four years in case a kidney suddenly became available from an organ donor. “When I finally got the call, and they said, ‘We have a kidney,’ I said, ‘Okay, we’ll get on the road.’” However, they told him that the transplant was scheduled for a date in three weeks’ time. It was then that he realized that the kidney was coming from a living donor. Throughout the process, Mary said she felt a sense of protection and gratitude. “The staff at the medical center made me feel very treasured. Everyone thanked me,” she said. “I was told I could back out at any time, but I never wavered.” They met for the first time one month after the surgery. In October, they celebrated five years of friendship – and five years of life. “She totally changed my life,” Dr. Bailey said. “I was a dead man walking. I got time with my family. With my daughters. With my dog. Time I never would have had. There’s no way I could’ve lived five years more.”
“I was a critical care nurse for 40 years, and I helped a lot of people, but I don’t think I had ever saved anyone’s life,” Mary said. “It’s a gift that I got to do it.”
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