A match for life: Wife donates kidney to husband

Apr. 15—by gino gutierrez

Not many love stories began with the idea of "like at first sight," but that is exactly how Jeffrey and Lisa Schnapp described their first encounter in 2018.

"Jeffrey's a chiropractor, and my dad and his wife had been seeing Jeffrey for a year and a half," Lisa explained. "I didn't have any knowledge of this, but I went into Jeffrey's office with my dad one day, and we had this mojo and have been best friends ever since."

That friendship soon blossomed into love, and the pair decided to marry in June 2021 in a small ceremony in their living room. "We got to have six people at our wedding. Then we went to restaurant where we got to have 10 people, so we expanded the party," Lisa said with a laugh.

The newlywed couple was well on their way to their happily ever after. After a year of marriage, with pandemic restrictions easing, they decided to spend their one-year anniversary in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jeffrey, now 56 and Lisa, 59, both smiled as they reminisced about the anniversary trip. Little did they know, their lives would be changed forever upon their return home.

It started harmlessly enough in August 2022 with the idea for the two to get life insurance. During his insurance application process, Jeffrey said, he was required to get a medical examination.

"I did and found out that I had hypertension, but they were also somewhat concerned about my kidney function," he said. "I was feeling fine and didn't notice anything that was going on, and that was the scary part."

Concerned, Jeffrey decided to go to the emergency room and would end up spending three days at the hospital. During that time, doctors worked to treat Jeffrey's hypertension and also ran additional testing on his kidneys.

"They said, 'We're going to have to call the specialist and go from there.' After bloodwork, I finally got the word that I am in stage four or five kidney failure," Jeffrey said.

Doctors said his hypertension could have played a part in this diagnosis, but were mostly unsure how his kidney failure came about. Jeffrey would spend the next 10 days in the University of New Mexico Hospital, undergoing more testing. A biopsy of one of his kidneys would show that Jeffrey's kidneys working at 15% capacity.

"All the rest of them, 85% was scarred over," Jeffrey said. Following this news, he then received a call from a pathologist who told him that without a kidney transplant, he would only have a year to live.

Shocked by this news, Lisa sprung into action and immediately helped Jeffrey begin the testing and registration process to join the organ donors list. "About a year and a half is what it took us from the time we found out about (Jeffrey's diagnosis) to getting all the tests and everything done and getting on the (organ donation) list," Lisa said.

Finally, in August 2023 Jeffrey was placed on the organ donor list, allowing people close to him to begin testing to see if they were a match to donate a kidney.

The first one in line was Lisa.

Despite not being the same blood type, the couple pressed on. After undergoing testing of her own in September 2023, Lisa and Jeffrey received the news that they were a 50% match — close enough to make Lisa an acceptable donor for her husband.

"She's my match. I just knew it," Jeffrey said with a smile.

The couple went into surgery on Jan. 17 at the University of New Mexico Hospital. Initially, both Lisa and Jeffrey came out fine and were recovering well.

Then, Jeffrey hit a few bumps on his road to recovery in the form of several infections he contracted while in the hospital. He also has had to undergo five additional surgeries since the transplant. Finally out of the hospital, Jeffrey and Lisa are optimistic about their future today.

The couple, who twice ended up being a match for life, now focus on advocating for organ transplants and educating others on the process — specifically what to expect when receiving or donating an organ.

According to Donate Life American, more than 100,000 people in America are on the waitlist for a life-saving organ donation, and a person is added to the organ donation list every eight minutes.

With 5,600 Americans dying while on the organ transplant list in 2022, according to Donate Life American, Jeffrey and Lisa's hope is by sharing their story, they can encourage more people to register, test and donate their organs to help save lives.

"To help others realize there is hope, it feels like something we want to do together," Jeffrey said.

Throughout this entire journey, Jeffrey and Lisa have leaned on each other in more ways than just one, and their bond is stronger than ever.

"We're a team. We knew we were a team before, but this proved that we can get through anything," Lisa said. "This was not something I was expecting, but we've handled it."