Seaford parents each donate a kidney to their sons

Last year, Brian De Vale, of Seaford, donated a kidney to his son Alan. Two weeks ago, Brian's wife, Evette Leavy, did the same for Alan's twin brother, Brian.

Tuesday, Leavy, 44, and Brian, 14, were almost back to good health after the July 22 operation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.

Such a double donation of parents to their children is "very uncommon," said Dr. Sandip Kapur, the surgeon who transplanted the kidneys for both boys. "This is the first time I'm seeing it in 14 years of doing transplants."

The boys were diagnosed in 2001 with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a disease that progressively scars the kidneys. (Actor Gary Coleman had the same disease.) Over the years, the twins needed regular injections of iron and growth hormone, and endured dietary restrictions and worry.

Initially, Leavy, a guidance counselor at IS 318 in Brooklyn, was not considered a suitable candidate for donation because of her higher risk for diabetes, which itself can cause renal failure. Her father has the condition, and she'd had gestational diabetes during pregnancy.

"I was terrified; we knew that we needed two kidneys," she said Tuesday. "What would happen to Brian later on if I wasn't a donor? Where do we get a kidney for Brian?

"Some people don't get a kidney for years because there is a shortage," she said. "They have to go on dialysis and I did not want my son going on dialysis. It's not the quality of life you want for your child."

So she set out to become a donor: She changed her lifestyle to make sure she could pass a glucose tolerance test. Just by walking a half-mile daily, and eating a healthy diet, she dropped to 112 pounds from 130.

"I had the motivation to do what I had to do to help my son out and it became a way of life," Leavy said. "Even though I gave my son the new chance at a healthy life, he's probably the one who extended my life and my health."

Kapur said almost 7,000 people in the metropolitan area are waiting for kidney transplants and the average wait surpasses six or seven years.

De Vale, 46, principal at PS 257 in Brooklyn, laughed Tuesday, recalling the little "legion of life" medal he received from the hospital. "Just say how great organ donation is," he said. "You know you did a good thing - you don't need a medal."

Alan, who weighed 83 pounds before his transplant, is now 5 foot, 10 inches tall and a healthy 130 pounds, his father said. Brian's weight is up to 97 from a pre-surgical 93. "I feel a lot better," said Brian, who, like his brother, will enter Seaford High School in the fall.

Their father said he told daughter Erica, 19, who was born in New York Hospital before it became NewYork-Presbyterian: "You were born in this building and now your two brothers were reborn here."