Transplant offers insight into family's bond

By COBY LaRUE
Staff

When local volunteer fireman Mack ‘Junior' Caudell Jr. learned that his first cousin was in need of a kidney, he didn't hesitate.

"I'll give her one of mine," he told his mother, "It will work, too." Caudell's mother, Reba, was relaying the news that his cousin, Shirley Jean Blevins had just learned she needed to have a kidney transplant.

Blevins had been battling juvenile diabetes most of her life (she learned she had the incurable disease as a teenager in 1965) before learning that it had caused her kidneys to fail in October of 2000.

"I'd known for probably two or three years that I had a problem, but I found out then that I was going to have an even bigger problem," she said.

Special Gift — Mack "Junior" Caudell and Shirley Jean Blevins hold hands and share a laugh at Blevins' home on Nile Road near the Virginia line in Alleghany County. The two were commemorating the one month anniversary of Caudell donating a kidney to Blevins.

Her doctor here, Georgia Latham, discovered the kidney problem and sent her to Dr. Pirouz Daeihagh, better known to the family as "Dr. D." "He thought it might be some of the medicine I was on," she said. "The kidneys were failing and they were failing fast."

"Dr. D" referred Blevins to specialist Michael Rohr at N.C. Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem.

After more extensive testing, she learned of the eventual reality of her condition.

Blevins had to start dialysis at home in April of 2001, which proved to be quite a hardship for her and her husband, Porter.

"We had to do it four times a day and it took about 45 minutes each time," she said. "It really limited our day trips."

After several months of dialysis, the final word came. "He (Dr. Rohr) told us that I was definitely going to have to have a transplant," she said. "As soon as Junior found out I was going to have to have a kidney, he said, ‘I'll give you one.'"

Caudell said he never questioned his decision from the first time he heard about his cousin's plight. "As soon as Mamma told me, I was ready to do it," Caudell said. "All of our family's real close. We were raised up just like brother and sister," he said of Shirley Jean. He said his wife, Betty, was also very supportive of his decision.

Caudell, who is the son of long-time mailman Mack Caudell, said he felt led by a higher power to help his cousin. "That's what we're down here for is to help somebody," he said. "My mission was to give her a kidney."

After Caudell's offer, the two had to go to N.C. Baptist in July of 2001 for testing and blood work.

"They told us they would call within 10 days if someone didn't match," Blevins said. "That was the longest 10 days of my life."

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