A ‘miracle of science and love’ gives dialysis patient a new lease on life

When Martha Parker saw that her husband, Will Hood, was calling in the middle of a workday last fall, she didn’t think much of it.

Although he didn’t call often, knowing she was busy as project manager with Texas A&M University’s Center for Worker Health (formerly the Ergo Center) and with her doctoral studies, he sometimes asked her to stop at the store on her way to their home near Iola or had something to discuss about their daughter.

But this time, she heard uncertainty in his voice, and when he hesitated and said they could talk that evening, she insisted that he share what was on his mind.

“It’s about George, and it’s big,” he said.

It must be really big, Martha remembers thinking, given that George Packard seemed larger than life. He had been an army ranger and infantry officer in Vietnam. He led the chaplain response at Ground Zero in New York City after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Before retiring, he visited military installations around the world as bishop of the Armed Forces for the Episcopal Church.

But now, George had a simple plea on Facebook: “I’m looking for a kidney!” He also gave the URL for DOVE Transplant, a free, New-Jersey-based organization that pairs military veterans in need of healthy kidneys with living donors.

Will wanted Martha’s support to start the potentially life-changing process of determining if he might be a good match. Will said he owed it to his friend—one of the most caring and passionate people he knew—who had supported his career as a Navy chaplain and helped him heal from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Martha not only agreed—she wanted to participate, too.

George, 80, had been in excellent health until 2023. After losing a kidney in 2005 to damage he suspects was caused by chemical exposure in Vietnam, he suffered further renal damage after an adverse reaction to contrast dye used in a medical procedure. Since 2023, he relied on dialysis to stay alive. Each treatment left him exhausted into the next day as his condition deteriorated. A kidney donation was the only way back to health.

An online prescreening with DOVE Transplant ruled out Will but kept Martha in the pipeline. In January 2024, she provided blood and urine samples to the Quest Diagnostics lab in College Station. Those test results looked promising, so Martha and Will flew to New York City in March to meet with the medical transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

This time, the tests took all day. In addition to intense psychological tests, there were additional blood analyses, ultrasound and treadmill tests, an electrocardiogram (ECG) to check for heart irregularities and a computed tomography (CT) scan to assess the health of her kidneys.

“The CT scan was the coolest thing,” Martha said. “They used contrast dye to block out the image of all of my abdominal organs except my kidneys and added the scan to my phone as a keepsake.”

On the third day of their four-day trip, Martha and her husband enjoyed a leisurely lunch with George and his wife, Brook. They thanked George and Brook for the gift of tickets to the blockbuster hit play “Hamilton” and VIP passes to the American Museum of Natural Science.

Then, sharing the scan of her kidneys, Martha gave George news that would change both of their lives: she was the best possible match for someone not a blood relative.

“George looked at me and said, ‘Really?’” Martha said. “Then he said he would pray over my kidneys. That’s when it hit me—when I first was aware of all the ways this would transform someone’s life. Accepting all the tests and the prospect of surgery was easy, but the idea of saving someone’s life took longer.”

Surgery was scheduled for May 1. For Martha’s procedure, which took about three hours, surgeons made a tiny incision in her abdomen and used a thin, lighted tube known as a laparoscope to view her internal organs.

They made two more tiny incisions and inflated her abdominal cavity with nitrogen, then spread and tied up the muscles and other organs so they would be out of the way while they detached the blood vessels from her left kidney. Using a device that resembled a small fishnet, they extracted the kidney, put it on ice and wheeled it into the adjacent room, where another surgical team and a sedated and prepped George were waiting. About six hours later, George had the gift of life.

“He was producing urine before they even sewed him up,” Martha said. “It was the best outcome possible.”

Martha emerged from surgery tired and with the sensation of air in her belly, but these were assuaged by the comforts of her hospital room.

“Because I was a donor, Will and I had a corner room as nice as any hotel suite, with picture windows with a view of the East River and the Manhattan skyline,” Martha said. “George’s room was small, and the window faced a parking garage, so when he was not being examined by doctors and medical students, he would visit us down the hall. My School of Public Health colleagues and others have found that viewing nature speeds up healing and recovery, and I believe that certainly was true in our case.”

Two days after surgery, Martha and Will checked into a medical hotel, where Martha recovered for two weeks. She resumed her daily walks, and she and Will even took the subway across the city to attend a Houston Astros game.

“They lost!” she said. “And to make matters worse, my back was killing me the next day. The surgeon told me something I have told others for years as an ergonomist, but failed to heed myself: I was leaning forward as I walked to relieve the tenderness in my abdomen and this put stress on my lower back, causing pain. Irony at its best!”

Martha spent the rest of May recuperating back home before returning to work, thanks to a Texas law that gives state officers and employees who are organ donors 30 days of paid leave. She said she is grateful for the law and for her colleagues, who did not pressure her to return too soon.

“This entire experience cost me only my time and my kidney,” she said. “All travel expenses for my husband and me were paid for by DOVE Transplant.”

And now that a few months have passed, Martha says that she—like most kidney donors—has experienced no long-term consequences.

“Experts say that endurance returns to normal after about six months, and I’m up to about 85 or 90 percent—doing two or three big things a day and staying up past 9 p.m.,” she said. “My only follow-up medical checkups will be at six months, one year and two years.”

George, free from dialysis, is doing well, too.

“He’s gone from two doctors’ appointments per week to one every two weeks,” Martha said. “He’ll have to take anti-rejection drugs from now on, but he looks good when we Zoom and says he’s doing fine as he gets back to his full energy level.”

Martha hopes her story will inspire others to consider this act of selfless service. Most of all, she feels blessed to be alive in an era when medical technology and generous people in organizations such as DOVE Transplant make safe, free kidney transplants possible.

“If you ever doubt the existence of God, just think of the whole process and what’s involved—it’s awe-inspiring,” Martha said. “A friend of mine said it best: being an organ donor is a miracle of science and love.”