Less than two months ago, David Monti, 32, of Damariscotta was a dying man. Diagnosed with failed kidneys due to diabetes in 2007 and determined to be too weak to survive a transplant, Monti was in dire straits.
According to Monti’s mother, Carol O’Donnell, doctors advised the family last year that her son’s health was so fragile, he could not wait the normal two to six years for the off chance a kidney would become available for him through the normal organ donor process.
Unfortunately, the usual and likeliest sources for a living organ donor, members of Monti’s immediate family, were all medically ruled out for one reason or another.
Monti’s situation was so desperate, that his family took the unusual step of asking the public for help through The Lincoln County News. (“Local family makes a public appeal,” LCN, page 1, Sept. 10, 2007.)
The prayers of Monti’s family were answered this year when a former co-worker and long time friend stepped forward to offer Monti a precious kidney. Monti’s saving grace came in the form of a 39-year-old single mother of four from Waldoboro, Ann Crowell. Monti and Crowell underwent the surgery together on Sept. 23.
“We used to work together at the Town Line video about 12 years ago,” Monti said. “We lost touch for a while. Then, when the story came out, Mom’s husband tacked it up on the bulletin board at work at Masters (Machine in Round Pond). She saw it and said she was going to be the one.”
All the hurdles cleared, surgery went off without a hitch. Monti was able to walk the next day and he was discharged from the hospital four days later. Far from being an invasive procedure, the surgery was largely done through three small holes in the abdomen.
Typically, donors and recipients never meet and the recipient is never told who the donor is. In this case, Crowell took Monti out to lunch in Damariscotta and told him she would be the donor.
“I told her there were still other people that were going to be tested and she said, “Oh, I got competition,” Monti said.
Currently Monti’s weight is still shy of his pre-illness 200-pound walking around weight, but he is still much better than the 120 pounds he weighed when LCN published his story that September. At the time, Monti was so ill he would not permit his picture to be taken. He couldn’t eat and what little he did eat, he couldn’t digest.
For the moment, Monti remains on disability. To help his body accept the kidney, he was given two massive doses of immune system depressants, which has the side effect of leaving his natural body defenses in a weakened state.
Monti’s immune system should rebound within a year or so to about 80 percent of what it was. For the rest of his life, Monti will take medication to prevent his body form rejecting his new kidney. He currently takes 13 pills twice a day, morning and night.
“I could go back to work now, they said, but I am going to wait until the end of cold and flu season,” Monti said.
Monti said he would be eternally grateful to Crowell for her life saving donation. “She thanked me for letting her do it,” Monti said.
“I am very grateful my son is alive,” Carol O’Donnell said. “How do you thank someone for saving your son? You can’t. It is almost like a rebirth.”