Charlene (Charlie) Gillispie wants to get into the book of Guinness World Records someday.
She’s not planning an elaborate stunt and doesn’t own an unusual pet or anything ridiculously large, tall, heavy or small. But she is a 50-year kidney transplant survivor – a feat shared by only a small group of people in the world still living at least 50 years after their first kidney transplant.
The 66-year-old St. Elizabeth Healthcare surgical assistant credits attitude and her mother’s good genes with her transplant longevity.
“Attitude is half the battle,” she said, “and I’ve got a big one of those.”
Pioneering times
It was December 1966 when the 15-year-old Gillispie received her mother’s gift of life – her spare kidney. At the time, few kidney transplants were being done, and most of those involved organ donation from a twin.
As a child, Gillispie was constantly in and out of the hospital. It wasn’t until age 12 that doctors diagnosed her with a chronic inflammatory condition called glomerulonephritis, which affects the kidneys’ filters and can eventually lead to kidney failure.
It turned out that her mother’s kidney was about as close to a twin’s match as possible.
“My mother gave me life twice,” she said. Still, her prognosis was nothing like today’s estimated kidney lifespan of 20 years or more from a living donor. In fact, during a post-surgery visit, her doctor told her she was not going to live long.
“I told him it wasn’t up to him,” Gillispie recalled. “That it was up to the man upstairs, and I’d die when I got good and ready. And I wasn’t ready.”
“I’m still here”
During her late teens and young adult years, Gillispie embraced a full life. “I did a lot of living – everything I was big enough to do and not big enough to do, too,” she chuckled.
By her early 30s, she no longer felt her doctor’s foreboding words. “I thought, ‘I’m still here.’ So I started taking better care of myself.” Today, Gillispie stays healthy by walking 10 miles every day after work – rain or shine.
If her mom’s good genes continue, Gillispie might expect to be around quite a bit longer. Her mother was 83 when she passed away in 2010. Gillispie says all this proves how well both a donor and recipient can thrive on just one kidney.
Defying the odds
Gillispie’s transplant longevity follows a string of defying the odds.
She’s never experienced rejection scares. Her new kidney began working immediately. And she returned to school a few months post surgery after being told she should not expect to finish her sophomore year.
“I come from a long line of very headstrong women,” she acknowledged.
Gillispie’s kidney is now 91 years old, and she’s never felt better. “If I’d known I’d have this much time, I’d probably have been a marine biologist or done something with Greenpeace,” she joked.
She’ll settle for living in Florida, however, her favorite vacation spot. She plans to retire next year after more than 45 years at St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
“I’m just going to relax for a change and not have to set an alarm clock.” But Gillispie will challenge herself to one more goal.
“I’m going to get in some book somewhere before I’m dead,” she said.
To be published as the world’s longest surviving transplant recipient, she’ll first have to surpass an Oklahoma woman who lived 55 years with her identical twin’s donated kidney, according to the American Journal of Transplantation.
If she keeps walking 10 miles a day, she just might get her wish.
