Twenty-Four Years After Donating a Kidney, Mother Inspires Daughter to Do the Same

When she was a girl, Holland Neifer loved when her mother, Jane, would scratch her back at the end of a long day.

Every time Holland reciprocated, she noticed an 18-inch scar wrapping around her mom’s back and side. “I was mystified by it. I really didn’t know that much about it then,” recalled Holland, 26, a mental health assessment therapist from Lakewood.

As she grew older, Holland learned what caused that scar: In 1993, Jane – a licensed practical nurse and mother of three – donated a kidney to a female cousin suffering from polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a life-threatening genetic disorder.

In January 2018, Holland did the same – donating a kidney to the nephew of Jane’s recipient, a young man also struggling to overcome PKD.

Both procedures – 24 years apart – took place at Cleveland Clinic.“Kind of like my mom, I didn’t really research it too much,” said Holland, who discovered her cousin’s plight from a desperate Facebook post. “He needed help, and I just had this feeling I needed to do this.”

Holland registered online with the Cleveland Clinic Kidney Donor website, which pairs individuals seeking kidney transplants with living donors. A few weeks after a blood test, Holland learned she was a match. Then, following in-depth testing and counseling, she was given the green light to proceed by a Cleveland Clinic organ transplant committee.

“When it became clear I would be a suitable candidate, I felt comfortable. I was glad to give my cousin a chance,” noted Holland. “But I don’t think it would have been an easy decision if my mom hadn’t already done it.”

Like Holland, Jane also remembered her own decision to donate as an easy one. “I had some reservations; transplants weren’t as common,” explained Jane, of North Olmsted. “But for some reason, I had faith it would work out.”

And it did. Her cousin, Mary, although battling other health issues, has lived with Jane’s kidney for over two decades. The transplant brought the cousins closer together, and Holland recalls spending many pleasant afternoons in her youth, swimming and playing at Mary’s home.

And just days before she was to donate, Holland received a phone call from Mary, the aunt of Holland’s recipient, Dan. “It was so nice talking to her,” said Holland. “She told me how her life had improved because of the transplant. That put my fears at ease.”

When Jane underwent her surgery, called an open nephrectomy, the process required a large, muscle-cutting abdominal incision; removal of a rib; and a rather lengthy hospital stay and recovery.

Conversely, Holland’s was much less invasive due to advancements in kidney removal. A surgical team led by Alvin Wee, MD, surgical director of the Renal Transplantation Program at Cleveland Clinic, performed a laparoscopic donor nephrectomy which requires just three or four small non-muscle-cutting incisions rather than one large incision in the abdomen.

Immediately afterwards, the team transplanted the kidney into Dan, who – after some complications – is on track for a normal recovery.

Both mom and daughter encourage others to consider being a donor. “I worked in a kidney dialysis center for a while, and saw what patients go through,” she emphasized. “If you can give someone a chance, it’s worth thinking about.”