examinations and physicals, the surgeons determined
Slick was in prime health and an optimal live donor for
Abbott.
“This may sound a little cheesy, but God gave us two
of them,” Slick said. “Maybe He gave us two so that we
can offer one to help somebody else out.”
Slick hopes his story with Jack Abbott will
encourage others to donate, as living donors and
deceased donors. Until he went through the process of
donating an organ, he said he had no idea how drastically
different a living donor can make on a person in need
compared to a deceased donor.
“The percentage of rejection and acceptance
compared between a cadaver kidney and a live donor
kidney, it’s as different as night and day,” Slick said.
“When someone is able to receive a live donor kidney,
No. 1, it lasts so much longer for the person. The
percentage of rejection is almost negligent compared to
the situation where someone is receiving a cadaver
donor. That just provided that much more motivation for
me to be willing to donate if we found out that I was
going to be a viable candidate.”
And he was. Slick and Abbott entered surgery
together on August 20, 2021. They are in full recovery.
Doctors said there’s no reason Slick won’t be able to
return to full health and his lifestyle should not be
significantly impacted, Slick said. Abbott is off dialysis,
gaining kidney function and looking forward to running
again.
“Throughout this entire process, I have had
absolutely no doubt that God has been involved in this
and has been working in this and I would encourage
anyone that is in need of a kidney to just believe and to
know that there are people out there who if they can
become aware of those needs are willing to step up and
consider being a donor,” Slick said. “Sometimes maybe
people don’t get their needs met because they’re not as
well known as they need to be. Jack’s willingness to sit
down with me and share, ask permission to share with
our class, this is my specific need, is exactly what opened
the door to have this need met.”
Both Slick and Abbott said they hope to reunite for
the Peachtree Road Race in July 2022 and run together.
“I think what would be really exciting is for Jack,
Sandra and I to be able to run the Peachtree Road Race
as a kidney transplant team or something like that,” Slick
said. “I think that could be an exciting followup story at
some point . And the main reason I’m participating in all
of this is hopefully the word will get out about the need
for transplant donors and maybe as a result more people
will be willing to consider donating.”
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