News Highlights

MSU presidents kidney donor emerged from his own office

2006-04-09

By Robb Murray, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN]

Photo by John Cross

Minnesota State University student Crystal Lamoreaux signs a get-well card posted in the Centennial Student Union for MSU President Richard Davenport, who underwent a kidney transplant Tuesday.

Richard Davenport didn't have to look far to find a hero. And she couldn't have picked a better week to come through for him.

Davenport and Ginny Fitzloff, an administrative assistant in Davenport's office, will spend the rest of Thanksgiving week recuperating at Fairview-University Medical Center in Minneapolis following successful transplant surgeries. Fitzloff, of course, was the donor, and Davenport the recipient.

The surgeries were completed by mid-afternoon Tuesday, and hospital officials said it was "uneventful and went as planned."

Davenport said a few weeks ago that a donor had been found, but her identity had been kept secret until MSU made her identity public Tuesday morning. Neither Davenport nor Fitzloff were available to comment Tuesday.

"Ginny is an enthusiastic advocate for kidney donation," MSU spokesman Michael Cooper said. "She was on a kidney donor list in South Dakota before she moved here. And, when she recuperates from her surgery, I'm sure that she'll urge others to consider kidney donation. She'll be an excellent spokesperson for a worthy cause."

Davenport suffered acute onset kidney disorder when he was young, but the problem disappeared for 40 years. It came back in recent years and, during the past nine months, has become more severe.

He made his plight public in September, and then began the hunt for a suitable donor. Friends near and far lined up to help him, but a person had to pass a rigorous battery of tests to be eligible to donate.

Fitzloff was among those who came forward, and she was no stranger to organ donation.

In 1998, she was inspired to sign up as an organ donor after her stepfather suffered kidney failure. More recently, she was inspired by her husband, who in 1978 donated a kidney to his mother. She said she wanted to be able to donate to him if he ever needed a kidney.

She was in the process of relocating to Minnesota (where she would live after she and her husband were married in July). She found out that, even if her husband needed help, she isn't a match and wouldn't be able to donate to him. She decided to seek out a new donor list after she moved.

A few months later, she got her chance to do the right thing.

"After reflecting back on my father, and having the opportunity to see life after donation with my husband, it was not a difficult decision," Fitzloff said in a statement issued by MSU. "It's a way that I can help someone, a way to express my Christianity. My husband's kidney function is excellent, and I am confident that I will recover completely."

Davenport's statement said he is "grateful to Ginny for her generous act of benevolence." He also praised the hospital and the doctors.

"The University of Minnesota Hospitals are among the world's leading transplant centers," Davenport's statement said. "I have complete confidence in their medical teams. I will be healthy soon, and in the meantime MSU will continue its strong momentum without missing a beat."

Doctors have told him that the success rate for healthy kidney transplant patients is as high as 99 percent.

After the surgery both Davenport and Fitzloff will be hospitalized for several days. When he's released, Davenport will stay near the hospital for up to two weeks for daily testing. When he returns to Mankato, he will stay at home, recuperating for several weeks before returning to MSU.

University of Minnesota surgeons at Fairview-University Medical Center have performed more than 3,000 living donor organ transplants - more than any other transplant center in the world. Since the program began in 1963, University surgeons have performed nearly 6,000 kidney transplants.

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