Man who donated kidney to stranger biking through Newport Sunday to raise awareness

Two men walked into a bar in Natchitoches, Louisiana. One needed a kidney transplant, the other had a kidney to spare.

In March 2020, Plover, Wisconsin man Mark Scotch, who'd recently retired, and his wife Lynn, walked into a brewery in Natchitoches, Louisiana. There, they befriended the only other patron who was at the bar that day, a man named Hugh Smith. 

The two men began chatting, but after a while, Smith got up to leave. When Smith went to leave, Scotch said he asked his new friend if he could buy him another beer. Hesitantly, Smith said he couldn't, because he had to leave for dialysis.

He was in stage IV renal failure and was looking for a kidney. 

When Smith revealed his need for a kidney, without hesitating, Scotch offered him one of his. 

"My sister-in-law had donated a kidney 13 or 14 years ago, and I never ever asked her a question. I was never interested, but somehow in the back of my mind I knew you could donate a kidney, and still live, because she's still alive. I didn't know how good you could live. I didn't know if you could still do all of the stupid things I've done and keep doing that, but just on a whim, just on a split second, he said, I'm looking for a kidney,' and I said, 'you know what, I think I can give you one of mine if you need one,' so that's what I did," Scotch said. 

Since his surgery, Scotch has been doing everything he can to raise awareness for organ donation. In May, he rode his bike 1,500 miles from Madison, Wisconsin, to Natchitoches, Louisiana, and on Sept. 19, he'll begin a 1,600 mile journey, this time traveling from Martha's Vineyard, with a stop in Newport, to his home in Wisconsin.

The two, who have appeared publicly and been on podcasts, have coined his journey, The Organ Trail. 

Close to home:Organ donation recipients and family of organ donors share their experiences in Newport

In memory of their son 

In the late-1970's, Scotch said he and his wife lost their first child. Their son was 15-months-old when he died after being placed on life support, and the couple wasn't offered the opportunity to donate his organs. 

"We never thought of it at the time, and it was never presented to us, but back in the mid to late-'70's, there wasn't a lot of transplants going on. But my wife especially, always regretted the fact that we were never able to donate our son's organs to somebody else...it was something that always bothered us in a sense, and again, my wife said we weren't able to get some value out of our son dying. Later in life we learned that people had done that, people that on life support donate their organs, or their family does for them. We really thought it would have been fantastic to do that, have our son's memory live on, so to speak," he said. 

When Scotch heard Smith's story, he said in the back of his mind he was thinking of his son. 

"When the opportunity just presented itself, I didn't even look at my wife. She was sitting there with us and I didn't look at her. I just said, 'I can do this.' I knew she'd be 100 percent on-board, and she was," he said. 

'If I had a dollar..." 

After Scotch told Smith he'd give him a kidney, Smith gave him a business card and left for dialysis. Now the two joke. 

"He says, 'if I had a dollar for everybody that said they were going to give me a kidney, especially a guy whose been sitting there drinking a beer, yeah, I'll hear from him again," Scotch said. 

The next day, Scotch sent Smith a text message asking to send him the phone number of his transplant coordinator, and that's when Smith realized just how serious Scotch was about helping him. 

A message of thanks:Plenty of help was received before and after kidney transplant

A death sentence 

Since Scotch began his journey to become a living organ donor, he said he has learned a lot about patients who need kidney transplants. 

"You have to put yourself in their place. They're on dialysis, basically it's a sentence to death, most of them. They don't want to get their hopes up. They're really depressed, they're in a brain fog. When they're on dialysis, they're in a brain fog, they're slowly dying. The dialysis machine cannot do what a kidney does," he said.

Though Smith was feeling pretty good and was upbeat, Scotch said most of the time patients are noticeably depressed. 

As Scotch began preparing to donate his kidney, his wife Lynn also became a living donor. 

Spare change:Reflecting on life one year after receiving much-needed kidney

In the United States, 13 people die per day while waiting for a new kidney 

"One of the reasons I'm doing this ride is to share information that I've learned, and to try to help educate people, because there's been so many advances in the medical field when it comes to transplant, even in the last few years, and I assumed, first of all, that everyone who needed a kidney got one. I didn't realized that 13 people die every day in this country because they're needing a kidney," he said. 

• Not enough kidneys are donated each year through deceased donation as only 3 in 1000 potential deceased kidney donors die in a way that allows donation.  
• If 10-15 out of every 10,000 people would become a living donor, we could eradicate the waiting list immediately.
• Living donated kidneys last approximately twice as long as decreased donated kidneys, thereby reducing the amount of kidneys needed and the amount of times a recipient needs to go through the procedure during the course of their lifetime.
• Any donor who registers through the Donor Care Network and donates through the National Kidney Registry will receive prioritization for a living donor kidney in the unlikely case that they need a kidney transplant in the future.
• One does NOT have to have a recipient in mind to be a living donor.
• Non-directed living donations allow anyone that feels the urge to donate to do just that, even to a complete stranger.

Though. not everyone can be a kidney donor, Scotch said everyone can be an informed advocate by educating one’s self in the donation process, dispelling myths and outdated information, answering questions, or leading people to reputable sources for answers.

The voucher program 

Eventually, Scotch signed up to donate his kidney through the National Kidney Registry's voucher system. Smith didn't end up with his kidney, but someone in New York did. The voucher guaranteed that when Scotch donated his kidney, Smith would then get one. 

Last year, Scotch, his wife and Smith all ended up contracting COVID-19, so the voucher system worked out well for them. Scotch had his surgery on Sept. 30, and Smith received his kidney on Feb. 18. 

Through the voucher program, living donors can just donate. They don't have to be a specific match.

"It makes it so simple, compared to what it has been," Scotch said. 

When Scotch donated his kidney, he used the standard voucher, and when his wife donates her kidney, she's going to use the family voucher, which will allow her to name five family members who could get kidneys if they need them in the future. 

"So we protect our family for any future kidney issues. This is all like in the last couple of years, so that's why I'm trying to talk to as many people and educate through the media as many people as possible, that, it's still a big step to donate a kidney, don't get me wrong, but they're trying to take away all of the things that might prevent that," he said. 

Since his surgery, Scotch said he is feeling great. 

Bethany Brunelle can be reached at bbrunelle@newportri.com  907-575-8528 or @bethanyfreuden1 on Twitter, Insta: bethanyfreudenthal,TikTok: thehijabicrimereporter, Muckrack: https://muckrack.com/bethany-freudenthal