Kidney transplant stands test of time Recent surgery given by stranger
News Tribune | Amy Flanery
Photo: Angela Salazar-Zupancic of Peoria, formerly of La Salle, had a kidney transplant at age 18. The surgery, which was unheard of at the time, was beyond successful. Doctors told her she could get another 20 years to live if she was lucky. That was 34 years ago. She is pictured here with one of her two sons, Frank Demetrio Zupancic, and her 5-month-old grandson, Frank Garrett Zupancic. NewsTribune photo/ Amy Flanery
When Angela Salazar-Zupancic received a kidney from her mother in 1978, it was page 1 news. That year’s Aug. 10 edition of the NewsTribune told the story of how the then-18-year-old spent her senior year making trips to Iowa City, then Peoria two or three times a week for dialysis.
“Dialysis now is maybe a two-hour procedure,†Salazar-Zupancic recently said. “At that time it was 4-6 hours, so you were pretty beat afterwards.â€
For six months, she endured long days traveling for the sessions, recuperating one day and then getting tired again a day or two later as the toxins built in her body. The illness was especially trying at that stage of life, Salazar-Zupancic said. She had planned to be a singer on Broadway.
“I was just at the point where independence was right there,†she said, “and all of a sudden it’s like, you’re not going anywhere.â€
When Angela’s parents, Demetrio and Verna Salazar of La Salle, learned their daughter needed a kidney, they both volunteered to give one of theirs. Demetrio was disappointed that doctors said Verna’s kidney would be a better match.
“He said my mom gave me life the first time, and he wanted to be the second,†Salazar-Zupancic said.
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
Photo: Angela Salazar-Zupancic of Peoria, formerly of La Salle, had a kidney transplant at age 18. The surgery, which was unheard of at the time, was beyond successful. Doctors told her she could get another 20 years to live if she was lucky. That was 34 years ago. She is pictured here with one of her two sons, Frank Demetrio Zupancic, and her 5-month-old grandson, Frank Garrett Zupancic. NewsTribune photo/ Amy Flanery
When Angela Salazar-Zupancic received a kidney from her mother in 1978, it was page 1 news. That year’s Aug. 10 edition of the NewsTribune told the story of how the then-18-year-old spent her senior year making trips to Iowa City, then Peoria two or three times a week for dialysis.
“Dialysis now is maybe a two-hour procedure,†Salazar-Zupancic recently said. “At that time it was 4-6 hours, so you were pretty beat afterwards.â€
For six months, she endured long days traveling for the sessions, recuperating one day and then getting tired again a day or two later as the toxins built in her body. The illness was especially trying at that stage of life, Salazar-Zupancic said. She had planned to be a singer on Broadway.
“I was just at the point where independence was right there,†she said, “and all of a sudden it’s like, you’re not going anywhere.â€
When Angela’s parents, Demetrio and Verna Salazar of La Salle, learned their daughter needed a kidney, they both volunteered to give one of theirs. Demetrio was disappointed that doctors said Verna’s kidney would be a better match.
“He said my mom gave me life the first time, and he wanted to be the second,†Salazar-Zupancic said.
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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