Detroit couple takes part in paired kidney donation program at University of Michigan

DETROIT – Detroit resident Lawrence Wheeler got the news two years ago that his kidneys failed.

"I couldn't believe it at first. I'm like, 'Wow, this is all of a sudden.' I was in shock," he said.

The thought of spending the rest of his life sick and on dialysis left him and his wife Olivia searching for ways to make his quality of life the best it could be. So they started looking for donors.

"They put him on the list but I heard the list was just so long and I was like, 'But what if I could?'" said Olivia.

She got tested and turned out to be a match. But she's not giving her husband a kidney, and it's all because of something called the Paired Kidney Donation Program at the University of Michigan.

Here's how it works: Olivia will donate a kidney to another recipient and another donor will provide a kidney to Lawrence. The process can sometimes cause somewhat of a chain reaction and in each case the recipient gets the optimal kidney.

"I always heard about paired donation and I was like that is a wonderful process. When you see that these two people who don't even know each other are willing to help out each other," said Olivia.

Thanks to this program, Lawrence will get a younger, male kidney which doctors say will last longer.

They're both looking forward to a better life and they have this message for others:

"I just want people to understand the importance of being a donor, a living donor period. You know, you don't have to be deceased to be a donor you can be a living donor and the lives you will change. You can change so many people's lives just being a donor," said Lawrence.

The couple will have surgery on Sept. 9. Afterward they will have several weeks where they are out of work recovering.

They have set up a GoFundMe account to help with some of the costs. If you would like to help go to www.gofundme.com/liv-and-lo.


About the Author:

You can watch Kimberly Gill weekdays anchoring Local 4 News at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. and streaming live at 10 p.m. on Local 4+. She's an award-winning journalist who finally called Detroit home in 2014. Kim has won Regional Emmy Awards, and was part of the team that won the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast in 2022.