Recovery Goes Slowly For Kidney Recipient

Associated Press

MADISON WI-- More than a week after her transplant operation, a woman who found a kidney donor with the help of a newspaper ad is recovering slower than expected.

``Things are starting to work,'' said Sue Johnson of Pulaski from her hospital bed at University Hospital in Madison. ``The doctor told me that it will be a long time yet, but he's optimistic that things will turn around.''

Johnson, 50, gained national notoriety after her brother, Patrick Zelzer, ran a newspaper advertisement offering to give his own kidney to save someone's life if a compatible donor came forward to help save his sister.

A biopsy done Nov. 30, one day after the operation, showed the kidney was partially functioning but the results were not as bad as doctors initially feared, Johnson said.

Johnson found a donor when her cousin, Kim Maloney of Green Bay, with whom she had lost touch over the years, offered one of her kidneys. Maloney has since returned to Green Bay and is recovering at home.

Johnson had originally hoped to go home this week, but doctors now believe a full recovery could take several weeks, her husband, Dennis Johnson, said.

Sue Johnson said she is undergoing dialysis every other day and has received two units of blood on separate occasions. She also underwent a plasma procedure and continues to take medication, her husband said.

``This is a live organ that is starting to slowly do what it's supposed to do,'' Dennis Johnson said. ``It's going to take a long time, but the doctor is optimistic that the kidney will totally come back.''

Copyright © 2000 PioneerPlanet/St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press.

This article posted December 11, 2000.