Parents' kidneys save sons

The Sharon parents each donated a kidney to help their ailing sons.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Patty and Boe Babcanec thought their world was falling apart a year ago.
They learned that the kidney disease contracted by their two older sons, Joey and Joshua, had caused Joey's kidneys to fail and that both boys would eventually require kidney transplants to save their lives.
"It was like our whole world just crumbled," Patty said, recalling the day they were in a hospital room in Pittsburgh in September 2001 where Joshua was recovering from a kidney biopsy.
Their doctor came into the room, knelt by her chair, and informed her that Joey's kidneys had failed and he would need a transplant, she said. It wasn't long before Joshua was in the same condition.
"It was a nightmare," Patty said. "I thought, 'This can't really be happening to us,'" she said.
The Babcanecs have three sons, Joey, 6, Joshua, 5, and Jacob, 3.
So far, the Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSG) that is destroying Joey's and Joshua's kidneys hasn't shown up in Jacob.
Seeking a cause
The couple said neither of them has the disease and a check with their families showed no sign of kidney problems in the past.
Doctors have told them they both carry a recessive gene that gave their boys a 25-percent chance of contracting FSG, Patty said.
FSG is a scarring of the kidneys that causes them to deteriorate and eventually stop functioning, Patty said.
Both boys underwent the kidney transplants at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, with Joey getting a healthy kidney from Patty on Oct. 9, 2001, and Joshua getting one from Boe on Nov. 11 of this year.
"A living related donor is the best thing," Patty said, explaining there is a much better chance of a good tissue match.
"We're just fortunate we were both able to do it," she said.
The Babcanecs are looking at a much brighter future today.
"It's been little miracles every day," Patty said as she watched Joey playing a video game and her two younger sons wrestling on the floor of their Highland Avenue home last week.
"We feel like two people that have been very blessed. It was a bumpy road but we made it," she said, adding, "You know that there's a God. I look at my kids and say, 'Hey, I've got three healthy little boys.'"
Asking God's help was a big part of their reaction to their children's health problems, said Boe, a quality engineer at the Wheatland Tube Co. He's on a medical leave as a result of the transplant but expects to return to work after the first of the year.
"A lot of praying," he responded when asked what he did when he learned his two older sons had developed FSG.
"It was hard to swallow," he said, adding that Monsignor John Hagerty, their pastor at Notre Dame Church, was a major source of support and comfort.
What happened
Both boys had to undergo dialysis treatments when their kidneys failed, which put a real crimp in their physical activity, Patty said.
The transplants made a major difference.
"It's like a whole new child, a whole new kid running, jumping and playing," Patty said.
Both boys have been granted wishes from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with Joshua getting a two-story playhouse that sits in their back yard and Joey getting a shopping spree that he plans to use to help buy toys for needy children.
Kidney transplants can cost between $150,000 and $200,000 each, but Patty said insurance picked up most of the cost.
The Shenango Valley Transplant Fund, the Notre Dame Church and Notre Dame School, where Joey is in first grade and Joshua is in kindergarten, have helped with the rest, the Babcanecs said.
"Those people are unbelievable," Boe said.
"There are so many people out there willing to help," Patty added.
How people helped
The couple said neighbors brought in food, offered free baby-sitting services and even raked the leaves from their yard when Boe was incapacitated as a result of the surgery.
"We've gotten a lot of help and we're OK," Patty said.
She said they learned of their children's' illness by accident.
Joshua seemed to be small for his age when he went for his three-year doctor's checkup, and his pediatrician and some medical tests determined that he was suffering from FSG.
They soon learned that Joey also suffered from the disease.
There is a chance that the disease can reoccur in the boys' new kidneys, but no problems have surfaced so far, Patty said.
The boys are both on a regimen of daily pills but that will eventually be reduced to just taking a couple of anti-rejection medications daily, she said.
"We don't want anybody giving us anything. We just want people to see that miracles can happen," she said.