Medical City Healthcare | Take Care | Winter 2019

Charles Young, a 49-year-old quality assurance director at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, would be the first to admit that he had let his health go when he tipped the scales at 400-plus pounds. But the former U.S. Marine had never let that stop him from pursu- ing his many interests, including award-winning painting, building model airplanes, and a bucket list that included skydiving and zip lining. That all changed in 2017, when Charles began to feel extremely tired over a period of months. In May, when he met up with Marine buddies for their annual reunion at Lake Texoma, his friends noticed his gray pallor and drop in energy. Together with his wife, they hatched a plan to get him to a doctor. Before he was given a diagnosis, however, he ended up in the ER, where he learned that his kidneys were failing. Charles was immediately placed on dialysis, but he was de- termined to find a better long-term solution. Learning that a kidney transplant might be possible, he researched options and chose Medical City Fort Worth — All about teamwork Transplant A new kidney and a second chance whose kidney transplant program is ranked first in the nation for survival outcomes and has the shortest wait time for patients receiving a deceased donor kid- ney transplant, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. A perfect match Tests showed that Charles’ sister, Theresa Glidden, was a perfect match. One hundred days after beginning dialysis, Matthew Mulloy, MD, now transplant surgical director at Medical City Dallas , p erformed the operation. Two weeks after the transplant, Medical City Fort Worth’s kidney program has been honored by the National Kidney Registry with an Excellence in Teamwork Award for being part of the largest kidney swap in U.S. history. The chain of kidney transplants involved 70 recipients and donors, including a Fort Worth patient who received a kidney at Medical City Fort Worth. Charles was walking up to 8 miles a day. Five months post-surgery, he went skydiving for the first time. He’s now fully committed to his health—watching what he eats and exercising daily. He has lost nearly 200 pounds. “I am not going to waste this second chance,” Charles said. 15 MedicalCityHealthcare.com