A father’s gift

No one knows exactly why Erin Scott’s kidneys failed when she was 20 years old. She didn’t have kidney disease. It might have been a strep virus. But now, 22 years later, the diagnosis on March 24, 1986, is not what matters. What Scott remembers more with joy is June 4, 1986, the day her daddy enlisted himself as part of her recovery by giving a kidney for her second chance at life.

Sitting at her Dothan home, Scott thought of the earliest memory of the man who saved her. “ ‘Two little somethins’ in a basket rocking with their daddy. One is a big big big girl, and the other is a little bitty baby.’ Him rocking us and singing that song. How did it go Daddy?” Scott said as she looked to 72-year-old James Kelley to start the melody. “The thing is I wouldn’t be here today. A gift you can’t ever thank someone enough for is the gift of life. I’ve lived 22 years with Daddy’s kidney, which is longer than I lived with mine.” Scott said she first noticed swelling in the fall of 1985, but she was told it was because of stress as a Troy State University cheerleader.

In December of that year, she had a sore throat and high fever. It was after she decided to go on a water diet in 1986 when she realized something more powerful than stress was combating her body.

“I gained over 40 pounds of fluid. It was going in, but nothing was coming out. My mother was a nurse so we went to our doctor who took blood work and saw I had no kidney function at all,” Scott said. Scott said she stayed on dialysis from March 24 to early June 1986 for three times a week.

“It was something I knew I didn’t want to do the rest of my life. I have one other sister and she and Mother had the same blood type and I had my father’s blood type,” she said.

Kelley said he was devastated when he first heard of Scott’s condition but relieved when he discovered he could be part of her recovery. He said his surgery on June 4, 1986, involved about a 14- inch incision and a loss of two or three ribs, but Scott said her body never rejected Kelley’s kidney and neither suffered complications in relation to the surgery. Or from having just one kidney.

“I’m told the Creator gave us enough capacity with a third of our kidney, so I’ve fared very well with no kidney problems. Have a few others that come with age,” he said, smiling as he sat near his daughter. “I kid Erin that she was not one of the top students at Troy before she had my kidney, but when she took my kidney back to the classroom, she did quite well. ... That’s my own opinion, it hadn’t been documented. “ ... You can mechanically swap a kidney, but it has to work. And our Master made it work and continues to be with us to this day.”

Scott is now an educator who devotes fellowship with others in the hospital and speaks to people about the importance of organ donation in her free time.

“We’re here for a purpose, and I think my purpose is to take Daddy’s kidney and to help others whatever way I can and to take the serving role daddy has modeled for me all my life and serve others. It’s God’s purpose for us,” she said.

Kelley, too, has spread the word on organ donation. “I understand the process is a lot less traumatic for a donor these days and it seems to have plenty capacity to be able to operate. ... It was available when Erin had a need, and we were able to have a solution,” he said. “It’s been a special pleasure to see what she’s done with her special opportunity. She’s a good wife and a good mother and brought us a good grandchild we thoroughly enjoy. ... Her enthusiasm and gratitude in my life has been exceptional.”