PORTLAND, Ore — Organ transplants are always a huge undertaking, and going through the process in the time of a pandemic adds another layer. But that didn't stop an Oregon woman from flying to California and giving her cousin the healthy, full life he deserves.
Jillian Schrupp never questioned whether to donate a kidney to her cousin Michael if she matched. She says it would have been harder to reconcile not ever getting tested and learning she was a match, than going through with it.
“I don’t think it was ever a deliberate decision. It was just what I feel like you do. My cousin and I are very close and I know if the roles were reversed he would do the same for me and I would do anything to keep people I love healthy,” Schrupp said.
Michael learned about 12 years ago he'd inherited a kidney disease. Polycystic kidney disease causes a slow deterioration of a person's kidneys.
"There's ways you can prolong it but eventually you have two options: either go on dialysis or if you're lucky enough to get a kidney, you get a kidney," Michael said.
Last year, doctors told Michael it was time: he needed a new kidney. He felt lucky to be getting one of Jillian's. Plans were set. But then, the world came to a screeching halt.
“Then the pandemic started in and it became so fluid that on any given day we didn’t know if we were going to have the transplant or not,” Michael told KGW.
“We were on the phone with our transplant team a couple days before surgery, uncertain if we were going to even proceed. We weren’t sure if we should even fly to LA if it was possibly not going to happen," Jillian said. "So, it was already a big event because surgery always is. That added a whole other dimension that made it actually much clearer that this had to happen now. We knew things were probably going to get worse long before they got better."
A perfect window amid the uncertainty opened up and the Schrupps say the Connie Frank Kidney Transplant Center at UCLA gave them the go-ahead. Jillian flew down the day before surgery was supposed to happen.
“I wasn't nervous at that point because I just felt so fortunate we were getting in that we were like, just do it, let's do it," Michael said. "The last month I was really starting to feel it. There were days when my body was saying, 'Hey, you need a kidney or something.'"
In an eerily empty UCLA hospital the Schrupp cousins - now more attached than ever - had to stay physically apart. They were only a couple floors apart in the building and though they saw one another the morning of surgery, they couldn't see each other in person again until after Michael was discharged.
Michael says they were both also tested for COVID-19 the day before surgery, which happened on March 24.
Jillian only stayed in the hospital one night and flew back to Oregon after about a week. Michael was in for a few days, less than many other donor recipients. The hospital limited visitors and, mostly, Jillian feared waking up from surgery alone, without her wife or mom by her side.
"At some point it’s not about not feeling fearful. It's doing something even though you feel a little bit scared. It was a much bigger picture than me and my feelings about it,” she said.
Just a few weeks after getting a new kidney, which they named "Victoria,” Michael is back to work. He’s just not leaving his house because his immune system is so weak and compromised.
Jillian says she feels fantastic, and even walked five miles this week.
"If there's any way to make someone’s life a little bit better and ensure their health and safety for decades to come, who wouldn't do this?” Jillian said. “It's a non-question if you know you're healthy enough to do it.”
Through this, she hopes to inspire others to donate organs. Early on, as she learned more about the process, Jillian decided that if, for some reason, she wasn’t a match with Michael,she would donate to someone else in need.
"There are so many people waiting to get kidneys donated whose friends and family aren’t matches. I felt so supported the whole process. It’s a relatively easy thing to do,” she added.