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My Kidney Donation Story: Marie Palazzo

Marie Palazzo

This was my son’s second kidney transplant. His first kidney lasted him around 13 years. He got COVID and that’s how the first kidney failed. I’m retired now, but I was an ICU RN for more than 30 years, so I am quite familiar with organ donation.  

My son had to go on dialysis at the end of May 2023, and I left my home and went to live with him. The dialysis was absolutely awful. He went three times a week. Every time I took him, he was dying on me little by little. When I saw what my son had to go through daily, for me it was a no-brainer to donate my kidney to him.  

During his testing, they discovered he needed a quadruple bypass. That’s not uncommon for people with kidney disease. So before the transplant, he had to have open heart surgery. His heart surgery was on September 13, 2023. After the heart surgery, he filled up with fluid because the kidney wasn’t working. There must have been about 50 pounds of fluid in him. He couldn’t even get his feet in slippers. 

I was a match, and I donated my kidney directly to him on November 27, 2023. Immediately after the surgery, he started feeling better and better each day. It’s been almost a year now and you would never know he was sick. 

I was 68 years old when I donated. My husband was worried whether I could do it and I said, Listen, I can do it. Afterward, I had no downtime. I was up and walking around the hospital the day after the surgery. There was a minimal amount of pain, but they take care of you so well. The nurses were fabulous.  

As soon as I came home, I was 100%. The day after I came home, I was up cooking and cleaning and doing everything like normal. I have a very small incision, below the belly button where you can’t even see it, and I had three small puncture wounds in the abdomen that are completely healed. There was no suture line pain. 

All my life I wanted to run in a race, so I joined a gym and started training. This weekend, my son and I are running a 5K together.

Marie Palazzo

I feel better now than I did before I donated my kidney. All my life I wanted to run in a race, so I joined a gym and started training. This weekend, my son and I are running a 5K together. 

What I want people to realize is that you can live with one kidney. There’s no medication to take. You are out of the hospital in a couple days, and you don’t feel any different. Actually, you feel better—not only physically but mentally, that you gave someone the chance to live again.  

Kidney disease really is a terrible disease. The waitlist for a kidney is so long, and to watch these people waiting, going back and forth to dialysis, just waiting every day for an opportunity just to live again. So don’t be selfish: You don’t need two kidneys, and there are so many people out there who need one.

About the Author

Marie Palazzo grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Queens 50 years ago. She has been married to her husband, Pat, for 52 years. She became an RN in 1993. She attended Queensborough Community College, then Adelphi University to further her degree. She has received multiple awards and certifications throughout the years. Aside from her license, she is certified in Medical Surgery, Ambulatory Surgery, PACU, ACLS, and PALS. Now retired, she enjoys traveling. She has one son and a daughter who passed away when she was four years old. 

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