PORT ANGELES — Sisters Danielle Weitz-Lind and Jeanine Lee have always shared a close bond.
Now, the two share a pair of kidneys.
On Nov. 8, Lee, 34, underwent surgery to donate her right kidney to Weitz-Lind, 21, who suffers from IgA nephropathy, an autoimmune disease that had nearly destroyed both of her own kidneys.
A month before the surgery, Weitz-Lind joked that her sister was “crazy” for giving up a kidney for her, but Lee said she was just excited to have her sister back to good health.
Almost seven weeks after the transplant, the younger sister celebrated her first “normal” Christmas in seven years, since she was diagnosed with the disease at age 14.
Having a new, healthy kidney has meant a dramatic change in Weitz-Lind’s condition.
“I thought I was pretty healthy before the surgery compared to some people,” she said Friday, seated on a couch in Lee’s Port Angeles living room and stroking a fluffy white kitten while family members prepared a Christmas Eve dinner in the kitchen.
“I don’t know who I was fooling, because I feel like a completely different person.”
Lee, too, is also doing well, which for her is feeling like her usual self.
With her body in top condition to even qualify for donating a kidney, her health took a hit after the surgery while her sister only felt better, she said.
But she emerged from surgery with no complications and, three weeks after surgeons cut an incision and broke her rib to reach the organ, she returned to work at Strait-View Credit Union.
