Doctors at the Renown Transplant Institute completed their first live donor kidney transplant surgery on August 11.
As we've reported, the Institute opened in December.
On Wednesday, Renown Regional Medical Center held a celebratory press conference for the surgeons and the whole team, as well as giving flowers, both literally and figuratively, to the donor and recipient.Â
Before this institute, patients in need of a transplant in the Reno area would have to travel either to Las Vegas or completely out of the state, which could leave families with a huge financial burden.
"It is absolutely incredible that we are standing here now saying that a kidney transplant is possible in northern Nevada," said Joseph Ferreira, Founder of the Nevada Transplant Institute, and President and CEO of the Nevada Donor Network.
With the first surgery, a Reno mother donated one of her kidneys to her daughter Lanie.
"It was a lot of mountains and valleys," said Melanie Davis, mother and kidney donor. "A lot of emotions. A lot of tears have sown the seeds that have bloomed into this beautiful day."
This has been a struggle the family has been dealing with for some time.
Lanie Hope Smith's kidney issues started when she was just four years old.
"They originally said that I wasn't going to regain function again," Lanie said. "But I actually got air flown to Oakland Children's Hospital and I was there for two months, and they gave me dialysis there, and I actually regained function."
She was able to keep the function going for 14 years, but her kidney was starting to reach end stage disease.
Renown was handling the treatment, but she was having to look elsewhere for the transplant.
"So, I already knew Renown as my home base, and then I tried to go to Mayo Clinic for the transplant in Arizona, and I was on their list for five and a half years," Lanie said. "But it just wasn't moving forward."
Since Renown updated its facilities, Hope Smith, now 23 years old was able to get a surgery here at home.
"We're so grateful to have been chosen to be the first living donor transplant in northern Nevada," Davis said.
Lanie says she can't thank her mom enough for everything.
"She gave me life, and then she gave me a second opportunity at life, and I try to be as grateful as I can to her," she said.
While there's a long road to recovery, Lanie says there is already one life changing benefit.
"I have not produced urine in three and a half years and now I'm going like a race horse," she said during the press conference.
Both of them said they owe much praise to Renown and its staff. They said the hospital was essentially a second home, but they both referred to the team as a family.
Davis, who experienced lots of health issues throughout her life, was still deemed healthy enough to donate a kidney. She wants people who may second guess donating to a loved one based on past health issues to still get checked just to see.
