Image
She proudly wears a tattoo of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s logo on her left side as a memento of her kidney donation to a dear friend. But Casey Ramsden will tell you she wishes her “body art” was more “gnarly.”
“You can hardly see the scars,” says Ramsden, 19, of Horsham, Montgomery County. “I even asked if the surgeons were allowed to carve their initials there afterward, something I could show off.”
“That’s just Casey,” says transplant recipient Karen Smiley, 36, of New Britain, Bucks County, who first met Ramsden as her church youth group leader 15 years ago. “She’s crazy that way, but she’s also one of the best people you’ll ever meet.”
When Smiley learned her kidneys were failing in the fall of 2013, Ramsden immediately volunteered one of hers. Smiley explained there would be a lot of testing involved to make sure Ramsden was physically and emotionally ready to donate, and to make sure her kidney would be a good match.
“I didn’t want to hear any of that,” Ramsden says. “Karen needed a kidney. I was saying let’s grab a pocketknife and get this done.”
Ramsden was a match, but there would be challenges along the way. The first one came shortly after Smiley was initially diagnosed. She wasn’t at all satisfied with her care at another hospital. “Throughout the testing and the beginning of dialysis, I felt like I was just a number or part of an assembly line,” Smiley says. “It was very frustrating, and I wasn’t sure what to do.”
Then a friend mentioned the transplant program at LVHN. “So I decided to check it out,” she says. “I knew from day one it was the place for me.”
“We are committed to taking care of everyone,” says Michael Moritz, MD, with LVPG Transplant Surgery–1250 Cedar Crest. “For example, a living donor is always preferable, but the risks must be negligible. We have disappointed people who wanted to donate an organ because we felt it was not in their best interest. But Casey was very healthy and is a lovely, giving person, which is a common trait among our donors.”
The plan was for Moritz to perform the transplant in the latter part of 2014. That was before Ramsden broke her foot when she jumped off a moving golf cart.
“I was goofing around with friends, and it just happened,” Ramsden says. “I had foot surgery and was in a cast for three months. When I was in a walking boot, I tried to convince them I was ready to go ahead with the transplant. But they made us wait.”
A patient has to be out of a cast and mobile again before the surgery in order to relieve any potential clotting issues. Once Ramsden was walking again, the surgery was set for Feb. 11, 2015.
“When Casey broke her foot, I was beginning to think it wasn’t in the cards to really happen,” Smiley says. “But once she was cleared for the surgery, everything came together really quickly. Dr. Moritz said everything went just as we planned.”
After her transplant surgery, Ramsden asked Smiley to design a tattoo for her. It would include the LVHN logo as well as a heart with “Karen” signed below it. They continue to see each other often, whether it’s Ramsden babysitting for Smiley’s 3-year-old son, Jaxon, or just going out someplace on one of their “kidney dates.”
“We certainly have a special bond for life,” Smiley says. “I don’t only have Casey’s kidney, I’ve also developed her passion for her favorite restaurant.”