While Stephen Lambert flew an L-39 Albatross in May of 2024, lifelong friend Greg Scohy was in the backseat enjoying the views from the sky.
The pair were celebrating not only their 60th birthdays with the flight, but also 10 years post Scohy’s kidney transplant donation from Lambert.
On September 3, 2014, Lambert was able to give Scohy a second chance at life through a kidney transplant.
The pair met long before this though in fourth grade when they both changed schools due to moves.
Since then, they’ve been inseparable.
For a few years of his adult life, Scohy experienced kidney complications due to type one diabetes.
In 2014, his team told him it was time to start looking at a kidney transplant.
“Living kidney donation is the best type of kidney transplant,” said Silas Norman, M.D., co-medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at Michigan Medicine.
“We encourage all our patients to look for a potential living donor if possible, and we have some strategies to support you as you look. And we so appreciate our living donors and what they do to improve the lives of others.”
Nervous about what the future held for him, Scohy confided in those closest to him what he had been told by his care team and that he was going to need to start looking for an organ donor or join the transplant registry list.
When Lambert heard about his friend’s need, he decided he would see if he was a match.
“My biggest concern was potentially not being able to fly anymore. But once I learned that I could still have my pilot’s license I figured the worst that could happen is that we wouldn’t be a match,” said Lambert.
“I mean, what else are you supposed to do for your best friend? You only get one.”
Lambert and Scohy went through all the necessary tests to see if Lambert’s kidney would be compatible with Scohy’s body.
Lambert even recalled the series of tests as being “lots of fun”.
When the pair got back the good news that Lambert had all enough similarities in blood type and how healthy Lambert’s kidney was to be a match.
The match was what is known as a six-antigen match, meaning it wasn’t a perfect match, but a very good match.
The results lifted a weight off Scohy’s shoulders.
“Steve stepping up to be my donor meant I didn’t have to wait on the registry list or ask around for potential living donors,” said Scohy.
“It was such a weight off my chest, and I can’t thank him enough for that.”
Time for transplant
The night before the procedure, the two got hotel rooms at the Med Inn at University of Michigan Health’s Taubman Center since they had an early wake up call.
They remember the morning of the procedure being uneventful with Lambert going into the operating room first so they could remove his kidney.
Scohy was taken back shortly after so they could begin the transplant process.
“Donation is overall safe. There is a small risk with surgery of bleeding or small injury to the bowel, but these events are very infrequent. After recovery the donor can go back to doing anything/everything they were doing pre-donation,” said Norman.
“We have been doing living donor surgeries in the U.S. for over 70 years, so we know the risk of kidney disease in living donors is very, very low.”
For the transplant recipient, there’s a risk of rejection, which is managed with anti-rejection medications as well as a risk of higher blood pressure and a small increased risk of developing some cancers.
However, many of these side effects are either easily managed or have very small possibilities of occurrence.
When Lambert woke up a few hours later, he got the good news that everything had gone well with the procedure, and he was welcome to go visit Scohy who was just down the hall.
While the pair couldn’t see each other much in the hospital, they were able to complete their daily walks together. This was one of their more challenging activities right after the procedure, but being able to do them together was good motivation to keep going.
Neither Lambert nor Scohy recall feeling much pain from the procedure while in the hospital.
Recovering with one less kidney and one new kidney
Once released, the pair decided to set up a recovery area on an L-shaped couch in Greg’s home.
The worst part? The two couldn’t stop making each other laugh causing their recent incisions to ache.
“We had so much fun recovering together, but it caused us to hurt so bad with how hard we were laughing,” recalls Lambert.
“Despite the pain of making each other laugh, it was great to be able to have Steve by my side to recover with,” said Scohy.
After two weeks of at home recovery, Lambert was cleared by his team at University of Michigan Health to go back to his home in Georgia and continue recovering there.
After Scohy’s second-year visit with his nephrology team post-transplant, which Lambert also attended for emotional support, Scohy was released from needing to regularly see nephrology.
Today, the pair of friends are both healthy and doing well. Lambert continues to fly planes and Scohy can sit passenger in them every now and then.
“We hope a kidney can last a lifetime. We usually quote expectations of 13-17 years but have several patients who have had their transplants more than 20 and a few more than 30 years,” said Norman.
In addition to having kidney DNA in common, the two also have birthdays a week apart.
At the end of December and the beginning of January, the pair turned 60. In honor of 10 years since their transplant and their 60th birthdays, Lambert completed an honorary flight in May 2024.
The flight took about an hour, taking off from Lansing, flying over to Lake Michigan, going down the coastline and finishing back in Lansing.
While he is on the ground, Lambert has been looking to be a peer mentor for those who are going to be living organ donors.
“I really liked the mentor I had when I was preparing for the transplant process and I want to be the same source of comfort for others,” said Lambert.
“The transplant itself was a bit of an uncomfortable process, but once it was over you don’t feel too different.”
The friends are both back in Michigan today living just about 10 minutes apart from each other.
“I tell Steve all the time that I’m going to need his pancreas next,” joked Scohy.
“At the end of the day though, I am so grateful that I have a friend who was so willing to give such an amazing gift in my time of need.”
If you care about kidney health, please read studies about how to protect your kidneys from diabetes, and drinking coffee could help reduce risk of kidney injury.
For more information about kidney health, please see recent studies about foods that may prevent recurrence of kidney stones, and eating nuts linked to lower risk of chronic kidney disease and death.
Source: Michigan Medicine.
