This browser does not support the Video element.
Georgia man's transplant kidney lasting half-century after transplant
Steve White received his father's kidney from a transplant in 1972. 50 years later, it's still hanging in there, but Steve needs another one.
ACWORTH, Ga. - Owen and Heath Beames and their father Steve White recently gathered around the table in Acworth.
During that time, the relatives read their grandmother Annette's notes in the family Bible. One of the notes mentioned the kidney that just wouldn't quit, in a story that begin back in 1969. At the time Steve was just 18-year-old, he is now in his 70s.
"I wanted to play football at Auburn, and I wasn't good enough to get scholarships," Steve White says. "So, I was going to be a walk-on."
But first, he needed a physical.
"I went to my doctor, who just did an in-office urinalysis, and he came back and said, "Steve, have your parents call me tonight," White remembers. "I actually learned from them that I had an incurable kidney disease. In hindsight, I think it's kind of good I was naive about what was ahead."
Steve White and his daughters Heather Beames and Kelly Owen read their grandmother's note documenting his transplant surgery 50 years ago on March 14, 1972. (Eli Jordan FOX 5)
Because, by 20, both of White's kidneys had failed, and he was in Emory University Hospital, so sick he needed a new kidney to survive.
"They tested both my mom and my dad," he says.
Elmer White, then in his mid-40's, was a near perfect match for his son.
Still, this was 1972, and kidney transplants were front page news back then, and considered pretty experimental.
"They were doing it at other places in the country, but I was one of the first at Emory," White says.
Their hometown newspaper covered every detail of Steve's transplant.
Steve White's mother Annette documented his 1972 transplant surgery in their family Bible.
After early signs of rejection, and a few complications, he says, his dad's kidney seemed to kick in.
About 10 years later, at the doctor for a checkup, White says he asked the doctor how long he should expect his father's kidney to last.
"He said the average lifespan at that time was about 7 years," White says.
But Elmer White's kidney?
It has lasted 50 years.
"It's always fun when you go see a new doctor," White says. "They're like, 'Wow!'"
Dr. Nicole Turgeon, a former Emory kidney transplant surgeon, who is now Chief of Transplant Surgery at University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, says most living donor kidneys last about 12 to 15 years.
Getting to 20 years, she says, is considered a milestone.
"Fifty years is an incredibly long period of time," Dr. Turgeon says. "It's impressive."
Turgeon believes the transplant community should study transplant recipients like Steve White to see what they can learn from them.
"That's really the one thing we've been working on really aggressively over the last 10 to 20 years, is, now that we can do kidney transplants very successfully, how can we get our kidneys to last longer, so patients don't have to need a second and a third and a fourth transplant," Turgeon says.
Elmer White died in 2002.
"I think about him every day, him and my mom both," White says.
The kidney Elmer gave Steve is now 96.
Steve White and his daughters Heather Beames (middle) and Kelly Owen look through old newspaper clippings about his 1972 kidney transplant.
Kelly Owen says it is surreal to know a piece of her grandfather lives on in her father.
"My sister and I kind of look at our dad like he is our hero, and I know my dad looks at his dad the same way," Owen says.
But, the gift that has kept on giving for so long is now failing.
Steve White is in stage 4 kidney failure.
"I got put on the [transplant waiting] list in June of last year, and they told me it's about a 6-year wait," he says.
His daughters, now mothers themselves, both volunteered to give him one of their kidneys.
White has refused their offer.
"We would do it tomorrow, if he would let us," Heather Beames says. "He puts family above everything, and the idea that his grandkids might have the same hereditary disease is a dealbreaker for him. He refuses to let us be donors, because he's afraid of taking a kidney they might need."
On March 14, 2022, the White's celebrated the 50th anniversary of his transplant with a trip to Disney World.
Now, they are searching for a new donor.
"It's been an incredible 50-year run, and we're not done," Beames says. "So, we're getting the word out, Facebook, everything. Living donors: give life."
White is now a patient at the Emory Transplant Center once again, hoping to find a living donor before he has to go on dialysis.
Steve White and his girls are hoping there is one more chapter to his story.
"I've got to be the luckiest guy on earth," White says. "I have been blessed way beyond anything I ever deserved."
_____
WATCH: FOX 5 NEWS LIVE COVERAGE
This browser does not support the Video element.