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The Congregant's Gift

Tribune photo by Julie Busch

Highland Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Julius Wynn will receive the gift of life from congregant Martha Kitchen on Jan. 9. Wynn needs a kidney and Kitchen is donating one of hers. "I'm just glad I'm able to save a life," Kitchen said.

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 6, 2008

TAMPA - She got the call while at work on a Friday.

"Are you sitting down?" the woman on the phone asked.

Martha Kitchen said yes.

"You're a match."

Three little words. Two lives. One decision.

Kitchen, 38, a lab tech with Quest Diagnostics in Tampa, could not believe the news. The divorced mother of three was overcome with emotion. Absolutely blissful.

Her blood type was compatible with her pastor's. His is the not-so-common Type A-positive; hers is Type O-positive.

And that meant she could give him her kidney.

She has known the Rev. Julius Wynn, pastor at Highland Missionary Baptist Church in Tampa, for seven years. That's long enough to know he's a good man.

"To help somebody and save a life," says Kitchen. "That's more important to me than anything."

On Wednesday, between 6 and 7 a.m., Martha Kitchen is scheduled to undergo surgery at Tampa General Hospital. Surgeons plan to remove one of her healthy kidneys. A few hours later, they will transplant it into Julius Wynn's right side.

If all goes well, Wynn, a 44-year-old father of three with end-stage renal disease, will no longer require nightly peritoneal dialysis, a blood cleansing that takes 10 1/2 hours of every 24. Although the treatment has kept him alive since October 2005, it's not as effective as vital organs. Kitchen's good kidney should help restore Wynn's overall health and give him more energy to juggle the demands of his flocks at Highland Missionary and at Palm Harbor Middle School, where he's an assistant principal.

He will also no longer be one of nearly 98,000 patients nationwide waiting for an organ donor. In Florida alone, some 2,800 people await a kidney.

Most get their organs from a deceased donor or a living relative. Less than one-fourth come from a person with no blood or close personal connection.

That's what makes this story so special, says Ruth Bell of Tampa's LifeLink Foundation, a nonprofit organization that coordinates organ and tissue donations.

"We just don't see this very often," she says. "It's a phenomenal, selfless gesture on her part."

Kitchen doesn't see it that way.

She remembers the day last fall when she was sitting in the pew at Highland Missionary Baptist, a familylike congregation of some 150 regulars. She joined seven years ago after searching for a new church home.

"I liked Pastor Wynn. He doesn't just preach. He has a way of breaking it down so you have a better understanding," she says.

She knew about his health problems. Hypertension led to kidney failure. He had told his congregation his brother might give him a kidney, or his nephew. But neither worked out.

On that warm fall Sunday, Wynn stood in the pulpit looking wan and shaky. In the middle of his sermon, he excused himself and went outside, where he vomited violently. Church members waited uncomfortably inside.

A few minutes later, Wynn returned, resumed his place in the pulpit and continued his sermon.

"That so touched me," Kitchen says. "I knew then I just had to do something to help."

The next day, without telling anyone, she had herself tested. She never even knew her blood type. But she knew he was Type A.

Wynn believes people are basically good. But good like Martha Kitchen, now that's another story.

"We talk a lot about love," he says. "But for a church member to step up and say, 'I'll give you a part of me so you can have life,' that is not expected. Words cannot express my gratitude."

There have been many disappointments since his kidneys failed. His doctors told him to lose weight to be eligible for a transplant. With the support of Tonya, his wife of 21 years, he lost about 50 pounds.

Then there was the search for a donor.

He and his brother, just a year apart, assumed they would be a match. The news that their blood types didn't jibe stung. A nephew in prison offered to help, but the paperwork involved proved daunting.

His 18-year-old son, his eldest child, does match. But he's too young. They would have to wait another three years.

Wynn is a man of deep faith. For 20 years, he has worked for the Pinellas County School District, first as a math teacher and now in administration. He followed a call to the ministry 18 years ago. For the last dozen, he has been the pastor at Highland Missionary Baptist, driving from his Clearwater home at least twice a week, sometimes more. He's also available to members by phone, or when they need a visit.

Last summer, he decided it was time to do what his religion decreed. He would turn everything over to God. He prayed over Romans 8:28: "And we know that things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose."

And then along came Kitchen. Their relationship wasn't particularly close. He had no reason to expect her to offer such a gift.

"People care, I know that. But when it comes to something like this, they say, 'I was born with these body parts, and I'm gonna die with them. And I ain't giving up nothin'.' As soon as I yielded completely to God, he moved things right along."

Kitchen grew up in Tampa and graduated in 1986 from King High School, where she played basketball and ran track. Her father had 16 children - six by her mother.

"She's always had a real good heart, doing for others," says her mother, Rosa Lee, who suffered a stroke a year after her husband died. Martha moved in for a few years to help out.

Her older sister, Patsy Ross, 46, was the first person Martha called with the news about the match. "Meet me at Mama's house after work," Kitchen said. "I've got some great news I have to tell you in person."

That's just like Martha, Ross says. "It's not about some good news for herself. It's about how she can help somebody else."

She and Wynn say they have a lot in common, though he grew up off a dirt road in Sanford and played chess rather than sports. But he also came from a big family - 10 siblings. Both have three children, their Christian faith and, most important now, compatible blood types.

Kitchen delivered the news to her pastor two days after she got the call. She did it on a Sunday in September, at the church where their lives intersect every week.

She had to undergo a series of tests to ensure she was a suitable donor. After the operation on Wednesday, she will spend a few days in the hospital, then face four to six weeks of recovery.

Her family supports her decision. Her youngest son, who's 11, first expressed concern about being separated from his mom. Then he assured her: "Don't worry. I'll come visit you in the hospital."

Jeanne Kimbrell, Wynn's dialysis nurse through the Kidney Institute of Clearwater, says she has never seen anything like this. It has restored her faith in humanity.

"He has so many medical complications, yet he never complains," she says of Wynn. "I'm amazed by everything he accomplishes, despite having a chronic illness.

"He's a good man. Martha is doing such a good thing, for such a good man."

If the transplant is successful, the kidney can last about a dozen years. When it starts to fail, Wynn will be eligible for another. But no matter what happens, his and Kitchen's lives will be entwined.

"Maybe God chose us to show how something good can come of a bad situation," Wynn says. "All I can say is thank you, Martha. Thank you for this gift."

Meet the donor and the recipient on Michelle Bearden's "Keeping the Faith" segment today at 9 a.m. on WFLA-TV. Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613 or mbearden@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Kidney, to see a video report and link to ways you can become a don

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