Michael Olesker, The Examiner
2007-07-19 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Caitlin Garber, 25, and Al Jordan, 58, have known each other for about five years. He’s a psychiatric nurse at Springfield State Hospital, and she’s a nurse’s assistant there. They’re colleagues, they like each other as pals, they admire each other’s work with patients. And that’s the extent of it.

Until now.

Now, maybe two months ago, Jordan mentions to Garber that he’ll be missing some time at work. He has a bunch of doctor’s appointments. He doesn’t mention that he feels that his life is running out. He doesn’t mention the difficulty of finding a healthy kidney to keep him alive.

Then Garber asks, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Kidney,” Jordan says.

“What do you mean?”

“The doctors are hoping to find a kidney for me. I need a transplant.”

“I’ll give you one of mine,” Garber said immediately.

“Are you serious?”

“Give your doctor my phone number,” she said. “Yes, I’m serious. Tell your doctor to call me.”

And, like that, the world changes. The doctors at University of Maryland Hospital began testing the two of them. They were a match. Same blood type, perfect donor kidney, everything else a go. They’re scheduled for surgery next Wednesday.

“She’s an angel,” Jordan says.

“He’s a wonderful man,” Garber says.

“You should see her with patients,” Jordan says. “They all love her.”

“You should see him with patients,” Garber says. “He’s wonderful, they all love him. Whatever he can do to help them, they just need to talk to him, and he’s right there for them.”

“She’s a wonderful person,” Jordan says. “I mean, we’re friendly, but we’re just colleagues who work together. There’s the age difference. She’s white, I’m black. None of this matters. You know, she grows her hair and donates it to cancer patients. And she’s doing all this while her boyfriend’s going off to Iraq.”

Where do we find such people?

“I just want to be a nice person,” Garber said. She stumbles to find the right words. “I just think it’s our responsibility as human beings to help each other. We’re not here by ourselves. I just want to help.”

It’s needed. The U.S. Renal Data System reports more than 15,000 kidney transplants performed each year — one kidney can perform the work of two unhealthy ones — but about 50,000 people are awaiting a kidney donor.

Where do we find such people as Caitlin Garber?

She grew up in Eldersburg, where her parents still live. She says her folks, Yvonne and Timothy Garber, have been very supportive. Jordan spoke to Yvonne Garber the other day.

“You know what she told me?” he asked. “She said, ‘Welcome to the family.’ ”

Garber says her boyfriend’s been supportive — but from a distance. She’d rather not give his name. He’s now at Fort Dix, N.J., preparing to leave for the war in Iraq.

“He can’t come home for this,” she said.

She’s worked at Springfield State Hospital for the last six years and has known Jordan as a man who works with uncommon sensitivity and care with mental patients.

He grew up in North Carolina, moved to New York and has lived in the Baltimore area for 20 years. He was diagnosed a year ago with kidney failure.

“I’m just barely hanging on now,” he said Tuesday evening. A lifelong bachelor who lives in Randallstown, he’s been staying at the home of his girlfriend, Ellen Sanders, who lives in Northwest Baltimore.

“Since the trouble started,” he said, “it’s just gotten worse and worse. To tell you the truth, I had just about given up when Caitlin volunteered. I mean, I could see my quality of life slipping away. I was just about out of hope. And then ... well, God is good.”

Garber says she’s not a religious person.

But, Jordan says, “When I told her, ‘I hope this works,’ she said, ‘Oh, it’ll work. God didn’t bring us together for this not to work. Everything’s coming together perfectly. It was meant to be.’ ”

But where do we find such people as Caitlin Garber?

“You know,” she says, “people have said to me, ‘What are you doing? You’re leaving yourself with only one kidney. What if you need it later?’ My response is: ‘What if I don’t? What if I live the rest of my life and never need my other kidney, and I could give another person 15 more years of life?’ That’s why I’m doing it. If I needed a kidney, I’d hope somebody would do the same for me.”

Please send news tips to Michael Olesker at olesker@baltimoreexaminer.com