For Father Raymund Reyes, a kidney transplant came with a familiar connection. The donor was Father Francis Garbo, a fellow priest and a friend of nearly three decades.
“I’m just enjoying this new life that has been given to me. I call it the new and holy kidney,” Reyes said on Wednesday with a laugh.
Reyes, a priest at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in South San Francisco, was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2019. By last year, the condition had progressed to the point that he needed dialysis.
His doctors told him he needed a transplant, but Reyes said he found it hard to ask for help.
“As a priest, I’ve been trained to serve people, not to be a burden to them,” he said.
Reyes was placed on a wait list for a deceased donor organ, but the wait was expected to stretch on for years. His care team urged him to put out a call for a living donor instead.
Garbo, who is stationed at Mission Delores Basilica and Mission San Francisco de Asis, said he first responded with prayer.
“I started praying for that, but I never imagined that it was going to be me,” said Garbo.
The appeal brought a flood of support. Dozens of parishioners volunteered to be tested, along with four fellow priests.
“There were 40 people waiting to be tested and I’m just marveled by it,” Said Reyes. “God, maybe you’re answering my prayer, that I don’t have to deal with this alone.”
But none of those volunteers turned out to be a match. Reyes then jokingly asked Garbo if he had signed up.
Garbo eventually did. After a series of tests, he was found to be a perfect match.
“I prayed to God that if it is His will that I give the kidney that God gave me, that it will be not my will, but God’s will,” Garbo said.
The transplant surgery took place in January at CPMC in San Francisco. Both priests are recovering well.
Before the surgery, Reyes said dialysis had left him immobile, with weak hands and legs. Now, he said he feels like himself again.
“During dialysis, I was immobile and my legs were so weak and hands, and now I’m back to where I was,” he said.
Reyes and Garbo have known each other through ministry for 27 years.
“Not knowing that after 27 years he would become my living donor,” Reyes said.
Three months after the operation, Reyes is preparing to return to the pulpit at the end of the month. He is set to deliver his first mass on April 26. On May 3, both priests will share a service at St. Augustine’s.
Doctors at Sutter Health CPMC said stories like theirs also highlight the need for more living donors. Dr. Shiang-Cheng Kung, medical director of Sutter Health’s Living Donor Program, said many people do not realize they can donate a kidney while living.
“I usually tell my patients to always go on the deceased waiting list as a backup but try to get a living donor if you can,” said Kung. “The wait time for deceased donor is too long. Right now, the wait in California is somewhere between 7 to 10 years.”
Kung said only about 22,000 transplant surgeries are performed each year, while 30,000 people are on dialysis. He said many patients do not survive the wait for a deceased donor, which is why a living donor can make a difference.
Garbo said the experience has been rewarding, and he encouraged others to consider donating.
“Don’t be afraid to give,” Garbo encouraged others.
He also said that if he had not been a match for Reyes, he still would have donated so his friend’s name would move higher on the transplant list.
Reyes said he now wants to use his recovery to support other patients still waiting.
“There’s sometimes 25 people in each session during treatment who sometimes need to just talk to someone,” Reyes said. “I will be that person.”
