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MURRAY — You could say that Gerald Wayman’s second home is in the hospital.
“I’ve been fighting kidney problems for the last 15 years,” he said. Wayman said his kidney problems are due to a genetic kidney disease.
“I’ve had two previous transplants, one from my brother and one from a cousin, but the disease I have continues to attack kidneys,” he added.
His last transplant was in 2013; and now in need of another kidney, 40 people volunteered to be a donor, but there was no match.
Even though Gerald Wayman has eight children, there was concern from doctors that they, too, could be at risk of the kidney disease.
But as he visited his daughter Shaleen Martel in Wisconsin over Easter, in what he thought was a moment for her to announce she was expecting, he was asked to open a small box that was gift wrapped.
“And I open it up expecting a little baby something in it and instead there’s a kidney pillow, and then I realized I was getting a kidney. But there was a card with it and I didn’t read the card,” Wayman added.
The card told him that his daughter was not only a match, but approved to be his donor. Shaleen Martel donated a kidney to her dad.
She has quietly gone through the donor process several weeks earlier.
“I didn’t want it to be another heartbreaking thing, you know just to have hope only to have it taken away again,” Martel said.
So the day after Father’s Day, they gathered together to prepare for the transplant at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. The transplant was a success. They are now both out of the hospital and recovering.
“It is not all cupcakes and roses after the surgery, but it’s worth it to have my dad here a few more years,” Martel added.
But this connection is more than what a living donor shares with a recipient.
“It’s a special bond I know many people don’t get the opportunity to share,” Wayman said.
It’s something even more special between this daddy and his little girl, especially so close to Father’s Day.
“Best one ever,” Wayman said.
“For everyone, I think not just for him, it was a Father’s Day gift to share. It has been a sacrifice, but it is the best one I have ever made,” Martel added.
A lifesaving gift to keep this family together for many Father’s Days to come.
