Bt Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
About 3,600 beautiful sunsets. The chance to go to France with her father, a World War II veteran, for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. And 10 birthdays apiece — for herself, her husband and her daughter.
That’s what Kyra Duran would have missed, if Susan Bunn — a perfect stranger — had not volunteered to give Ms. Duran one of her own kidneys 10 years ago. Ms. Duran was on the verge of kidney failure.
To celebrate the anniversary of that act of caring and selflessness, the two women attended the 2014 Transplant Games of America this past summer. The four-day event brings together transplant recipients and donors in athletic competitions.
It was Ms. Duran’s idea to go to the Transplant Games, in honor of the decade of life she received as a result of Ms. Bunn’s actions. There were more than 100 living donors at the games, which were held in Houston, Texas, Ms. Bunn said.
The stadium was full of people in the Transplant Games who would have been dead without a heart or liver transplant, Ms. Duran said. People are dying "left and right," and a donated organ could be the key to keeping a mother or child alive, she said, adding that "everyone should be an organ donor."
"To give someone a second chance (through an organ transplant) feels pretty amazing, but I wasn’t as amazed until I met people who received an organ," Ms. Bunn said. "The reception from the recipients was amazing. I felt like a rock star. But at the end of the day, I don’t look for glory."
But back to 1994, when Ms. Duran was facing the prospect of starting dialysis for kidney failure. As a child, the Lawrence Township resident had been diagnosed with a rare kidney disorder that ultimately would have led to kidney failure.
Ms. Duran managed to stave off end stage renal failure — the medical term for kidney failure — until she was in her late 30s. But it finally caught up with her. She had been feeling "pretty sickly" for about a year, and had lost weight.
"Had I gotten a virus or an infection, I could have passed away," Ms. Duran said. "The dice were really stacked against me. I had one foot in the grave. I was in a weakened state (of health)."
That’s when Ms. Duran’s physician told her she likely would need a kidney transplant. But there was a lack of suitable candidates. None of her family members were a match, so the Duran family reached out into the community — including The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville.
Enter Susan Bunn. She was a physical education teacher in the Lawrence Township public school system. She learned of Ms. Duran’s plight through an email sent to all school district employees by school district administrator Bruce McGraw, who attends The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville.
Ms. Bunn, who is now a personal fitness trainer, responded instantly. She had learned of a student who had received a kidney transplant from his teacher in another school district. When she received Mr. McGraw’s email a few days later, she said she "thought God was trying to get my attention. It was too coincidental."
Ms. Bunn contacted Ms. Duran, and the two women, along with Ms. Duran’s husband, Philip Duran, met for brunch on a cold, windy and rainy day to explore the possibility of a kidney transplant. They agreed to go through testing to find out whether Ms. Bunn was a match for Ms. Duran.
"When I met Sue, she looked really angelic," Ms. Duran said. "What kind of person would do this? I thought she must be a really good person to respond to a call for help. This is a person who decided to step up (to the challenge)."
Ms. Bunn said that she and Ms. Duran, who are now close friends, began bonding when they started the testing process. Theirs was a unique journey, she said, because donors and recipients are usually family members — not strangers. But like family members, "Kyra knows I will be there for her and she will be there for me," she said.
When testing proved they were a match, they proceeded with the surgery. Ms. Bunn gave up one of her kidneys to Ms. Duran. She said she knew that she could live with only one of her two kidneys, and that if something happened to her kidney she would go to the top of the list for a transplant of her own.
The kidney transplant surgery proved to be a success. Ms. Duran recalled that when she saw Ms. Bunn lying on the hospital gurney before the surgery, "I thought, ‘They will cut this woman open for me.’ I felt guilty."
After the surgery, Ms. Duran said, she put her hand on her abdomen near her new kidney. She recalled thinking that it was a gift, and she needed to make good use of it.
"I do feel like I am living on borrowed time. There are no guarantees, just because you have a transplant. You have to make your life the one that you want it to be, and not sit around and watch sit-coms. Sue took a chance with her own life to give me a kidney," Ms. Duran said.
So why did Ms. Bunn offer one of her kidneys to Ms. Duran?
"I felt led by God," Ms. Bunn said. "People are always looking to do the right thing — to be giving. I just did it. Some people thought I was crazy. Now, 10 years later, my children are proud of me. It’s not a ‘common path taken’ kind of thing."
"The Durans are a wonderful family, and someone should do something for them," Ms. Bunn said. "I look back at the 10 years of Kyra’s life. She would have missed her daughter’s high school graduation, some happy things and some sad things."
For Mr. Duran, Ms. Bunn’s actions meant that "my life wasn’t shattered. I can’t imagine my last 10 years without Kyra. It means everything to me. There is no way I can pay back what Sue did for us as a family," he said.
"You just don’t ever want to think about it," Mr. Duran said. "It’s more than I can put into words — all the memories that never would have been, the good times that never would have occurred. It’s your whole sense of the world. Kyra is the anchor of the family."
Given their experiences, Ms. Duran and Ms. Bunn are advocates of organ donations. The waiting list is long, Ms. Duran said. People should donate their organs, she said, because "why bury an organ when someone could use it? You won’t need that organ after you pass away."
To donate an organ is "a tough thing to decide," Ms. Bunn acknowledged. "But at the very least, put it on your driver’s license (that you will be an organ donor). Give someone a second chance. You don’t need them. Share them. I don’t think it’s being brave, if you are led to do this."
"I gave Kyra 10 more years of sunrises and sunsets. If this kind of thing — to give someone a second chance — can snowball, so be it. My story ended well, and the Durans lived happily ever after," Ms. Bunn said.
