Sep 18, 2005 By Dave Zuchowski For The 7 min read

A sign at this year’s annual Victor Family and Friends Reunion at the ancestral homestead in Haydentown gave folks an extra something to celebrate. In big bold letters, the banner congratulated brothers Ron, 61, and Barry, 59, on the 25th anniversary of their successful kidney transplant. It was a momentous milestone in a series of events that started decades ago.

“Back in 1963, I first discovered I had a health problem when I went for a physical as part of student aid application to study at West Virginia University,” said Ron. “That’s when my doctor found albumen in my urine and came up with a diagnosis of glomerulonephritis, a disease that affects the capillaries of the kidneys. He concluded the ailment was probably the result of a boyhood strep infection and would eventually lead to kidney failure.”

Ron, an avid hunter and fisherman, lived with the ailment until November 1979, when it got severe and he had a hard time getting out of bed. On opening day of deer season that year, he just sat in his brother’s truck, unable to pursue one of his favorite pastimes.

A medical examination in January 1980 showed that Ron’s creatinine, a crystalline end product of metabolism, had risen to 10 on a scale in which the normal reading is around 1.2. That’s when he started dialysis at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

“The doctors put a fistula in my arm to raise the vein to allow for better dialysis,” said Ron. “Usually, the fistula has to wait six weeks before it can be used, but when my creatinine level went to 25, the point where ureic poisoning can cause death, they began using it anyway.”

From January to September, Ron went to Allegheny General for dialysis three times a week and was plugged into a machine from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. His physician, Dr. Wallace Gauntner, also suggested he undergo a kidney transplant and began the search for a donor.

Ron’s entire family – his father, Ed, mother, Kay, and three brothers, Barry, Greg and Brad – were tested for compatibility. It turned out that Barry scored the highest on the match chart with a four, the top grade usually reserved for identical twins.

“Although Barry and I are two years apart in age, we came out a perfect match for a transplant,” said Ron. Ironically, Barry’s blood type is O positive, while mine’s an A. That means that, if the shoe were on the other foot, I wouldn’t be able to donate my kidney to him.”

Back in the early 1980s, the three best options for a having a kidney transplant east of the Mississippi were the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Coincidentally, the Victor brothers decided to have the operation performed in the City of Brotherly Love.

“Ron and I were always close,” said Barry. “One day, we made a pact that we’d go through with the operation.”

The brothers would have made the kidney swap even earlier if Barry’s wife didn’t become pregnant. They decided to postpone the operation for a few months until after the baby, Kelly Jo, was born.

Barry, who had never before been in a hospital for treatment, underwent an extensive battery of physical and mental testing to see if he’d be a suitable transplant candidate.

“Ron is my best buddy,” said Barry. “We see each other every day and have coffee together. I had no fear of the operation, but placed my trust in God. I just wanted to wait for my wife to have our baby so I could spend some time with her.”

Eventually, on Sept. 16, 1980, the brothers entered the operating room where doctors removed one of Barry’s kidneys and connective blood vessels and transplanted it in the lower right area of Ron’s abdomen. Because Ron’s original kidneys weren’t diseased, just non-functional, the surgeons decided to leave them in place.

After the operation, Barry woke up in pain because the surgeons had cut through musculature to remove his kidney. However, because the doctors had cut through mainly fatty tissue into Ron’s abdomen, his pain wasn’t as severe.

“Before the transplant, I had to really watch what I ate and drank because of the dialysis,” said Ron. “When I woke up and learned I had a functioning kidney, the first solid food I ate was a McDonald’s hamburger with fries, and it was heaven.”

While in the hospital, Ron got to share his experiences with about 25 other kidney transplant patients. Many of them had a much harder time of it because Ron was one of the few to have a living donor. The others had kidneys transplanted from donors who had died.

Although most transplant patients had to worry about tissue rejection back in the early 1980s, Ron didn’t suffer any symptoms until he was discharged four weeks after the operation. He came home on Oct. 10 and, within a week, suffered an adverse reaction. Admitted to Allegheny General Hospital for treatment, he came home the second week of November and was well enough to go deer hunting on opening day.

“I haven’t had any trouble with the transplant since and have gone fishing and on two hunting trips to Colorado for elk and mule deer and another to Wyoming,” said Ron. “Thanks to Barry, I also got to see my four grandchildren: Rene, Scott, Evan, and Brogan.”

The brothers estimate that the cost of their operations is close to the quarter-million-dollar mark, all of which was paid for by their health insurance and Medicare. To finance their significant incidental expenses such as hotel, food, gas and airfare getting their large family to Philadelphia, friends and relatives donated money and staged a chicken dinner at the Haydentown Community Center. St. Peter’s Lutheran Church held a flea market at the Uniontown Mall, and their cousin Michelle Taylor and her husband, Keith, sponsored a fund-raiser concert at Albert Gallatin High School.

Over the past 25 years, neither brother has had any problems arise as a result of the transplant, although Ron suffered two mild heart attacks in 1996 and 2002. He also was treated recently for skin cancer, a side effect from taking transplant anti-rejection drugs.

Both brothers work for Berkley Surgical of Uniontown, Ron for the past 40 years, Barry for 38. Ron said it’s tough for him to think about retiring because of the company’s excellent health plan.

“My prescriptions alone cost about $2,000 a month,” said Ron. “With my co-pay, the seven different medications I take cost me about $10 out-of-pocket. Berkley is a very nice company to work for. Despite my illness and our operations, Barry and I have never lost a day’s wages.”

“Thank God they’re both doing fine,” said their mother, Kay Victor, who hosted the family reunion at her home in Haydentown. “We’d had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about them, but they both have a set of really good genes.”

This August, about 140 friends and relatives showed up for the reunion from as far away as Alabama and Seattle to wish the two brothers well.

“I guess you might say that our story has a happy ending, because, for the past 25 years, we’ve been blessed and want to share our experiences with others,” said Barry. “When you get right down to it, you might say it’s all about love.”