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Pracht, who was diagnosed with a kidney disease when he was a teen had been on the waiting list for a new kidney for nearly 1 1/2 years. The average wait is three to five years.
"I was excited it was good because they wanted to put me on dialysis in March and I am getting married in June so it was perfect timing," Pracht said.
"I have a kidney disease that is a slow progressing disease and some never have to get transplants. Mine was a different case." Richard Pauli, 41, and Pracht both had kidney failure and needed transplants. Pauli's best friend, Joel Swisher, 32, offered to donate a kidney, but his blood type was different than Pauli's. Pracht had no relatives or friends whose blood and tissue types matched his. Pauli and Swisher both are from Plymouth, Mich.
Both Pauli and Pracht would have had to wait for kidneys from deceased donors. Then, Dane Clark, 39, Florissant, offered to donate a kidney to whoever needed one. Testing determined that Clark was a perfect match for Pauli. Swisher was a very good match for Pracht.
Pracht said Clark's mother tried to be a donor but couldn't.
"He sees people on dialysis and his kidneys were good so he wanted to donate," said Pracht.
During four adjoining operating rooms at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Clark donated his kidney to Pauli and Swisher donated his kidney to Pracht. Both transplants were successful, with the donor kidneys functioning well.
Washington University transplant surgeons who performed the operations were Martin Jendrisak, MD; Surendra Shenoy, MD; Jeffrey Lowell, MD; and Niraj Desai, MD.
"I am doing pretty good now and getting better by every day," Pracht told The Missourian. "It couldn't have came at a better time. I'm just glad it is over with now - I don't have to worry about doing the dialysis during the honeymoon."
Each of the four men involved in the swap met while in the hospital. Pracht said he expressed his gratitude to the men, but was especially grateful for Swisher's actions.
"I just told him I was thankful that he was willing to do that for someone he didn't know so that his friend could get a kidney," said Pracht.
The matched paired exchange was the first one done entirely in St. Louis. Previously, Barnes-Jewish had participated in a six-way kidney swap with Integris Baptist Hospital in Oklahoma City and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In that procedure, a recipient in St. Louis got a kidney from Oklahoma, and her son donated a kidney to a recipient in Baltimore.
Doctors say these types of kidney exchanges serve as models for a possible national living donor exchange program. More than 83,000 Americans are waiting for donor kidneys, but only about 15,000 kidney transplants occurred last year because of the shortage of donors.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital is the largest transplant center in the region, performing about 150 kidney transplants each year. Almost half of those transplants involve living donors.
