State senator, son recovering well after transplant surgery

ATLANTA - A little more than a month after undergoing kidney transplant surgery, state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said his son is doing great.

"Some days it feels like it happened yesterday and other time it feels like it happened a year ago now," said Sen. Albers.  

Friday marked a year since he rushed his son, Will Albers, to the emergency room and they learned the 24-year-old was in kidney failure.

For nearly a year, Will had to undergo dialysis as they went through the process of getting him on the national organ transplant list and his father completed testing to find out if he was a match for his son.

The pair underwent surgery at Emory University Hospital on July 21. Surgeons removed one of Sen. Albers' kidneys and transplanted it into his son.

RELATED: Family rallies around Georgia grandmother in need of kidney donor

"Having a fully functioning kidney in his body brings him up to 100%.  Where dialysis before helped, but it didn't give him all the things his body needed.  So, he has got energy and color and feeling like he's not seen in over a year," Sen. Albers explained.  

Albers said he has about a week left before he is cleared to return to normal activity, but he too feels back to normal.

"Go see if you can do this for somebody else.  Here I am five weeks later and I'm okay.  I was back to work a week later," said Sen. Albers.

RELATED: 4-year-old born with kidney disease receives life-saving transplant from her father

Albers and his wife set up a foundation several years ago to help first responders and military veterans, but now the family plans to expand their work to help other families navigate the complex transplant process.

"This is an opportunity to help and I want you to know that I'm going to be working on legislation here in Georgia to expand the benefits to those who want to be organ donors to help them, obviously to help the recipient," Sen. Albers said.  "Most of all, the goodness that goes around also helps the society as a whole.  So, there's a way we can do this even better."  

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