MEDICAL BULLETIN

Class of 1959 alumni now share more than graduation date

Edward White, M.D., gives kidney to Frank Yatsu, M.D.; two spread word about organ donation

Frank M. Yatsu, M.D., seated, and fellow Class of 1959 member Edward C. White, M.D., now share a connection stronger than school and profession.

By Laura Marx

Two Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine alumni now share something a little more significant than their graduation date. In May, Edward C. White, M.D., of Berea, Ohio, donated one of his kidneys to Frank M. Yatsu, M.D., of Houston, saving him from dialysis and the wait for a cadaver donor. “As you might guess, I owe Ed White everything,” said Dr. Yatsu. Both he and his donor are alumni of the Class of 1959.

Forty-five years ago, it would have been difficult to predict that the two would one day share this experience. They knew each other as medical students, but not very well. The single students and married students tended to socialize in different circles, they said; Dr. White was single, whereas Dr. Yatsu was married to his wife, Michiko. After graduation, the two physicians went their separate ways.

Dr. White completed an internship and served as an assistant resident at two different hospitals before becoming a physician at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea and a founding partner of Southwest Family Physicians, where he has practiced family medicine for more than 42 years. He married his wife, Diane, in 1960, and they now have four children (including Douglas White, M.D. ’92), children-in-law, and 10 grandchildren.

Dr. Yatsu completed a two-year residency and trained in neurology and research. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he joined the neurology staff at the University of California, San Francisco. Next, he became chair of neurology at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, and then at the University of Texas at Houston, where he currently is a professor and chair emeritus of the Department of Neurology. His and his wife’s family includes a daughter and son-in-law.

In 1990, Dr. Yatsu had a slight infection that was treated with an antibiotic that damaged his kidneys. His kidney functioning worsened over the years, and a nephrologist ultimately recommended that he go on dialysis. Dr. Yatsu began the treatment in July 2004, first peritoneal dialysis and then hemodialysis. In peritoneal dialysis, waste-absorbing fluid is pumped into the abdomen and then removed. In hemodialysis, a patient’s blood is run through a filtering machine and then returned to the body.

After he started dialysis, Dr. Yatsu’s name automatically was entered on a waiting list for a kidney. “A new kidney is preferable to dialysis because, otherwise, you’re tethered to this machine three times a week,” he said.

In the years since graduating from medical school, Drs. Yatsu and White only had come in contact with each other at medical alumni reunions and when Dr. White, as part of his Medical Alumni Association activities, telephoned Dr. Yatsu to ask for an annual fund contribution. “I think we’ve given money every year,” said Dr. Yatsu. “He’s very persuasive.”

The two crossed paths in 2002 when both received awards from the Medical Alumni Association at a medical alumni reunion brunch. Dr. Yatsu received the Distinguished Alumnus Award, and Dr. White received the Clifford J. Vogt, M.D. ’34, Alumni Service Award.

Then, earlier this year, Dr. White sought professional advice from Dr. Yatsu. “I called him because he’s the world’s expert on stroke, and I had a case I wanted to discuss with him,” Dr. White said. “In the process, I asked, ‘How are you doing?’ He said, ‘Not so good. I need a kidney.’ ” Dr. White told him, “I’ve got two kidneys. I’ll give you one.”

He didn’t expect the subject to go any further, but the next day, Dr. Yatsu called him and asked whether he had been serious about donating a kidney. When Dr. White discussed the possibility with his wife, she was firm in her support, asking, “How often will you get the chance to do this for someone?”

Before Dr. White could donate his kidney, however, he and Dr. Yatsu needed to determine whether they were a match. When they passed that test, they decided to have the transplant performed in Houston, at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The transplant occurred May 4. The alumni were in the operating room simultaneously. Dr. White’s kidney was removed first, then flushed with saline and transplanted into Dr. Yatsu, whose own two kidneys were not removed. The entire procedure took four to five hours. The surgeon had been performing transplants for years, but this was the first transplant he completed in which both the donor and recipient were more than 70 years old.

The surgery was successful. Although Dr. Yatsu has had to change medications because of stomach symptoms, he said he is now going back to work and feeling fairly well.

The Yatsus said they are incredibly grateful for Dr. White’s donation. “It’s a gift of life that he’s given. I’m really indebted to him,” Dr. Yatsu said.

The Whites and the Yatsus are using this experience to spread the word about organ donation. The number of people on waiting lists always exceeds the number of donations, they said, and the donation of an organ can save a life. They hope that newspapers and magazines will publicize the cause and make it possible for others to receive the same gift of life that Dr. Yatsu has received.