Gospel recording artist Sharon Pulliam will temporarily put her career on hold to donate a kidney to her sister, Felicha Dixon. The surgery will take place June 6 at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago.
"My sister's health is more important than my career," said Pulliam, who plans to return to her scheduled performances a few weeks after surgery. "I'm honored to do this for my sister."
Dixon, 34, was diagnosed with sarcoidosis as a child and has spent most of her adult life suffering from complications of the disease. The disease causes inflammation of the body's tissues and, in her case, resulted in damage to her kidneys.
"I've always been healthy and never suffered from the illnesses that my sister has had to endure," said Pulliam, 43. "Now is my opportunity to give her a normal life."
Dixon's husband is trained to give her hemodialysis at home four days a week. This allows her to continue working as a supervisor at the Park Millennium in Chicago and provides some flexibility and control over her treatment. Dixon received a cadavaric kidney transplant in 1995, but the organ had to be removed in 1998 due to infection and rejection.
"I'm excited and anxious for the transplant," said Dixon. "I know my quality of life is going to be so much better."
She was hesitant to ask any of her family members to donate, but Dixon said, "I had a choice -- to give in, or to live life."
There are currently more than 3,220 patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant in Illinois. Many of these patients may spend years waiting for a cadavaric transplant.
Living donation offers advantages over non-living donation, including the ability to perform the transplant at a scheduled time before the patient becomes extremely ill. Living donation between family members may be more successful than a transplant from an unrelated donor, lessening the risk of rejection.
"Kidneys are matched genetically," said Dr. Enrico Benedetti, chief of the division of transplantation at UIC. "In this case, Ms. Pulliam is a perfect match for her sister."
The donor's surgery will be performed laparoscopically, which is less invasive than traditional surgery and reduces recovery time and potential complications. The kidney donor is typically discharged from the hospital one or two days after the procedure with minimal pain and discomfort.
"We want to make people aware of the need for organ donation," said Pulliam.
Pulliam was the featured soloist at the 2004 Expo for Today's Black Woman Gala. She was selected New Gospel Artist of the Month in April 2003 by WGCI radio. Pulliam's latest CD, "Makes Me Wanna Shout," was released in 2004.
The University of Illinois Medical Center department of transplantation provides state-of-the-art services in cadavaric and living-donor liver, kidney, pancreas and small intestine transplantation. The department is currently involved in several clinical and basic transplant research projects, including the optimization of immunosuppressive therapy in African-American patients following kidney transplantation.
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