A mother’s love

When Jamie O’Connor, 58, of Manhattan donates a kidney to her son Monday, she will be giving him more than a second chance at a healthy life.

Northwestern Memorial University, where Austin O’Connell, 30, of Joliet will have the transplant, enrolled Austin and Jamie into FREEDOM-1, a clinical research study at Northwestern Memorial University of an investigational cell therapy called FCR001.

With FCR001 treatment, living stems cells from the kidney donor are “processed and infused” into the kidney recipient, which then will generate new immune cells in the recipient’s bone marrow, according to the FREEDOM-1 study.

The goal is to create a dual immune system or “durable chimerism” so the recipient ultimately can achieve long-term acceptance of the donated kidney without needing anti-rejection medication, which can be up to 20 pills a day, according to the FREEDOM-1 study.

Those pills aren’t without risk. They can cause significant side effects; affect kidney function and damage other organs; and contribute to other health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and weight gain, the FREEDOM-1 study said.

Basically, some of Jamie’s stem cells will be transplanted into Austin’s body, and he is hopeful these will help his body accept his new kidney, he said.

Austin said he is just “blown away” by the transplant team at Northwestern and, by the “medical science” that will allow such a lifesaving procedure to happen with a minimal hospital stay.

“The plan is that my mom will be out in 24 hours, and I will be [there] for three days,” Austin said. “That’s just crazy for me.”

Jamie said her husband, Rich O’Connor, and Austin’s fiancée, Kelly Hickey of Joliet, will update loved ones on hers and Austin’s progress.

Jamie said Northwestern will follow Austin very closely the first few months after the transplant. He will return to Northwestern three times a week in October, twice a week in November and weekly in December, she said.

They’ve spent a good part of their summer at Northwestern undergoing tests in preparation for Monday’s transplant. They said every moment has been worth it to them, and they naturally are staunch supporters of organ donation now.

“I’ve taught English for 25 years, and I’ll never have a better story to tell,” said Jamie, who is a teacher at Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort. “What mother can give life to their son twice?”

How did Austin wind up with kidney failure? That’s a mystery to both Austin and Jamie.

Jamie said that when Austin was a newborn, he was diagnosed with failure to thrive and required a feeding tube for a few months. Then, when he was 2 or 3, he began spiking high fevers with no other symptoms, which they later learned were due to kidney infections, she said.

So Austin saw a nephrologist until he was 8, and he even took low-dose antibiotics for about a year, Jamie said. Austin continued to pass physicals, including his high school physical, she said. All of his kidney-related bloodwork always was normal, as was his blood pressure, she said.

About 10 years ago, Austin noticed his urine had become frothy, so he mentioned it his doctor. Austin said the doctor ran more bloodwork and found Austin was spilling large amounts of protein into his urine, a sign of kidney damage.

Once again, Austin needed a nephrologist, as well as high blood pressure medicine and a diet to preserve kidney function, he said. That worked well until August 2021, when Austin learned his kidney function had dropped below 15%. He was placed on the kidney transplant list but not dialysis – not yet, he said.

“My nephrologist said the longer you can hold onto your own kidneys and not dialysis is what you want to do,” Austin said. “You want to avoid dialysis for as long as you can.”

Jamie said friends and family, including Jamie, underwent testing to see if they could potentially donate one of their kidneys to Austin. Jamie said she was rejected fairly quickly due to her high blood pressure.

One night in March while at work, Austin noticed he was swelling. The swelling wasn’t just in his feet or ankles; it was his calves, legs, hips and lower belly. He called the on-call doctor, who sent Austin to the hospital.

Although he said he felt fine, Austin went to the hospital and learned he wasn’t fine. He needed two blood transfusions and dialysis. In April, Jamie, who’d made lifestyle changes over the past months and was now off the blood pressure medicine, decided to reapply as a donor and was accepted, she said.

One of Jamie’s friends started a website – Support Austin’s Army – and has raised $10,000 for the family so far through donations and the sale of T-shirts.

Jamie said her “heart breaks and bursts at the same time.”

“Nobody wants their child to go through this,” she said. “But the support and prayers – everybody has just been there for us. I don’t know if we could have done it without everybody’s help.”

For information, visit supportaustinsarmy.com and organdonor.gov.