Pictured is Darlene and Rick Morganti with their grandkids. From left to right are Roman, Darlene, Richard, Josephina, Brittney, Gianna, and Brandon Morganti. Submitted photo

LAKEWOOD — March is Kidney Awareness Month, and this year Darlene Morganti, who’s life was saved iu 2020 thanks to a living kidney donation, is looking to remind people just how important being an organ donor can be.

Morganti was suffering from kidney disease for about 10 years before her doctor in Erie said it was time to get her set up with transplant doctors and look into getting her a kidney transplant. Her entire family was tested to see if they would be able to donate, but her two daughters had underlying issues that would not allow them to donate a kidney and her husband, Rick, and son, Michael, were not matches. This then led to Morganti being on a dialysis machine for seven hours a day for nine months.

“They originally told me 10 hours a day,” Morganti said. “But, I was a teacher at Jamestown Public Schools and also a waitress at Davidson’s so I had a little argument with my doctor, who eventually said we could try seven hours. So, when I got home from school I would get on the machine and stay until about 11:30 and then go to bed, and I would do that every day.”

During this time, Morganti’s son, Michael, who is also a member of the Jamestown Police Department, called the doctors to ask if there was anything else that could be done. This then led to their discovery of the UPMC Living-Donor Kidney Exchange.

“They said if my son could give a kidney, then they would find one for me,” Morganti said. “He said, ‘OK, I’ll do it’, and all of a sudden I got a call that they had found a 100% donor match for me.”

Morganti’s match was a young woman from Pittsburgh named Tiffany Galley, who told Morganti at the time that she had been on the list for a few years and had forgotten about it until receiving the call to donate.

Morganti’s transplant took place on Oct. 8, 2020, and Michael Morganti’s donation happened a few months later in 2021 to a man from Pennsylvania. Morganti said on the day of the surgery, she was waiting with her daughter-in-law in the waiting room when a woman came in and sat by them.

“She asked my daughter-in-law if it was her husband donating a kidney today, and she said yes,” Morganti said. “Then, she said ‘that’s my husband he is donating to.’ So they were both at Hamot for the transplant and their rooms were down the hall from each other and they got to meet two days later.”

Being an organ donor is something that Morganti said is “so important” and “life saving,” adding that she is only here today because someone wanted to help someone else. Galley is now a part of the family and still comes up to visit from time to time.

“Our whole family has changed,” Morganti said. “I have two grandkids I would’ve never gotten to see without my transplant.”

One of her grandkids also plays a small part in the story of her transplant, as Morganti said her daughter-in-law was also tested to see if she would be a kidney match, and was, but then it was discovered through this testing that she was pregnant. The doctors, Morganti said, said she could do the transplant, but it would have to be a year after the baby was born.

“My son said we couldn’t wait that long, and that’s when he signed up to donate,” Morganti said.

These days, about four years later, Morganti is doing much better, but still has many medications and pills to take, including some that make it so she cannot make morning plans because she is not sure how her stomach will react to the medication in the mornings. She praised the work of her doctors, who are still keeping an eye on her even now she said, giving an example of a bladder infection last year that had her back at Hamot for four days, but where her doctor also called ahead and kept an eye on her the whole time.

Both Galley — who Morganti referred to as “amazing” — and the man Michael Morganti donated to are also doing well these days, she said. Organ donation is something that Morganti said is an “amazing gift.”

“There are no words,” Morganti said. “I just want everyone to be aware of how important organ donation is. There are a lot of issues out there that people have, but you have nothing if you don’t have your health. My son is my hero.”

Additionally, Morganti said she had a friend at school and also a cousin who tried to donate but the friend was not a match and the cousin had blood cancer many years before so they were unable to do it. Morganti said someone has to be in very decent health to be able to donate a kidney or receive a kidney.

Back at that time, Morganti had also called a few other hospitals, including Pittsburgh and Cleveland Clinic, because she had been told it was important to try a few, and added that Cleveland actually called her back a few days after the transplant. She added that she was happy it had happened at Hamot, because it was so close by, and praised the other hospitals as well.

Overall, Morganti’s message these days is to try and raise awareness of the importance of organ donations.

“I think you don’t realize how important it is if you don’t know someone going through this,” Morganti said. “It’s so important and every day I think about it, and every night I pray and thank God for getting me through it.”

Morganti has a friend right now on dialysis, saying that she knows what they are going through, and that it is not easy to be on the machine for at least seven hours a day, and that when the time came for the transplant she was ready, though she had to keep the catheter in for six months after the surgery.

For those who may be facing a similar situation, Morganti said it is important to hold on to faith.

“You have to have a lot of faith,” Morganti said. “You have to tell yourself it will get better, and take it one day at a time. You have to have a lot of support, and my family is wonderful. I was in the hospital for about eight days and needed a lot of help when I got home, and they were there for me. I had a lot of faith in God and prayed a lot, and am just so thankful that I had this chance.”

While Morganti said her time on dialysis for nine months was hard, there have been people on it for years, and that she had originally been told there would be a ten year wait before she would be able to get a kidney transplant. Morganti considers herself very lucky, especially because her kids are still mostly in the area and she talks to them and her five grandkids — all between the ages of two and 22 — every day.

“I’m only here because someone wanted to help someone else,” Morganti said. “Tiffany and my son have given me the best gift ever. I’m so lucky and grateful and blessed.”