Lenora Williams never worried too much about the health of her kidneys.
But in early 2023, Williams, who resides in Midland, went to the hospital and found out her kidneys were failing — she had to start dialysis.
“When they asked if I knew my kidneys were bad, I said ‘No.’ I never knew,” she said.
Over the next several months, Williams remained on dialysis before being referred to Medical City Fort Worth’s Transplant Institute for an organ transplant. Two months after joining the wait list, she was informed a kidney was available from a deceased donor — it was a match.
“I know it was God’s will. He wanted me to have it,” Williams said.
For Medical City Fort Worth, each patient who walks out of the hospital’s doors with a successful transplant is an achievement, said Traci Salas, clinical supervisor of Medical City Fort Worth Transplant Institute.
But, Williams’ transplant was even more special. Her procedure marked Medical City Fort Worth’s 1,000th kidney transplant.
When Williams was informed of the milestone, it felt like hitting the lottery twice, she said.
“It was a blessing to me and I appreciate every one of these doctors,” she said.
Medical City Fort Worth completed its first transplant in November 2012 before becoming Medicare-certified in May 2013. The hospital completed its 500th transplant on a Vietnam veteran in May 2019.
The hospital completed 115 kidney transplant operations in 2023. A majority of the patients travel from other states to receive a transplant, said Erin Granvold, director of Medical City Fort Worth’s Transplant Institute.
Since its first transplant, Medical City Fort Worth has grown to become the highest-rated facility in Texas for kidney transplants and for one-year kidney survival, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
“We’ve built (the institute) pretty fast, but it’s because we have the most amazing physicians,” said Granvold.
As clinical supervisor of the hospital’s transplant institute, Salas and her staff feel honored to guide patients throughout their transplant process.
“We get to see patients throughout the spectrum. Prior to transplant, we meet them, evaluate them, and make sure they’re good candidates,” she said. “We take care of them while they’re on the waitlist, and then we get to see them after they’ve been transplanted.”
Still, not every patient’s transplant journey is the same and it can be a challenge. Some patients have waited several months for a kidney, while others wait for years, said Salas.
“It has to be really individualized because people come to us at different stages in the process,” she said. “There are people who are fortunate enough to have access to care where they find out early that their kidneys are failing, and then we have people that unfortunately don’t have the access to care. They sometimes don’t find out until their kidneys have failed until they’re admitted to the ER. Everyone gets evaluated as quickly as possible.”
Moving forward, the transplant institute is hoping to grow its living-donor kidney transplant program to minimize the wait time for patients on its list. The hospital completed 31 living donor transplants in 2023.
“A living donor is a really key thing for our community,” said Salas. “There’s such a shortage of deceased donor kidneys, that anytime we can encourage or promote living donation, that just opens up even more kidneys for people who maybe don’t have a living donor.”
Are you interested in becoming a living donor? Click here.
As for Williams, she continues to recover from surgery and finds herself in better physical health than before her transplant.
“Before, I couldn’t walk and I had no energy at home,” she said. “Now, I can do those things. Anybody that’s on dialysis, don’t think you don’t have a chance, cause you do.”
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David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.