Lakewood Ranch man endures kidney transplant surgery

Just before midnight on March 24, a quiet, boring, peaceful evening was transformed into an excited frenzy at the Lakewood Ranch waterside home of Robert and Kathy Lempert.

They were receiving calls.

The notice came from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, informing Rob, who had been on the kidney transplant waiting list since 2020, that doctors were preparing to “harvest” two compatible kidneys.

“She was just throwing things around,” Robb said of Cathy, who was running around the house looking for anything she needed beyond the packed bag at the foot of her bed.

The couple loaded up their car with everything they needed and set off for Jacksonville and a brighter future.

On the drive, the two excitedly discuss their unexpected turn of events. Rob, 62, has been on dialysis since 2022 and is trying to stay positive despite his “terrible” life. He now has two chances to receive a new kidney, instead of the one he had expected. It's a stark difference from his previous trip to Jacksonville a few months ago, when he was told two hours into the drive that a kidney transplant was not possible.

This time they had a second chance: they could return to active life in the near future.

Rob's deteriorating condition meant they couldn't make plans or look ahead to the future, but on the drive to Jacksonville on March 24-25, they began talking about vacation destinations and places they wanted to visit.

“We knew we had two kidneys,” Cathy says. “It was a huge relief. I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders. I was getting a kidney!”

Once in Jacksonville, Robb prepared for surgery while he waited for more information about the donor.

Eventually, news came that the accident victim's kidney was no longer available, leaving only one candidate: a man with heart disease who was close to death but somehow managed to hang on.

It put them in an unusual position: if the men endured too long, their organs would suffer damage from not getting proper support from a weakened heart. But why would anyone wish for an early death?

Doctors were eventually forced to tell Lempert that the man had survived so long that his kidneys were damaged and no longer functioning.

The Lemperts got back in their car and began the long journey home.

“It was a very quiet journey,” Cathy said. “We knew Rob would be in emotional turmoil. We had so much hope, which turned to incredible despair. Eventually my own hope dried up. This situation was awful in every way.”

On the drive home, Rob tried his best to stay positive.

“But then I thought, 'I can't do this anymore,'” he said. “I was exhausted. I called my friends (to tell them I was getting a kidney transplant). I had to call everyone back.”

Two months later, it remains in a bag at the Remparts' home. The search for a living donor has been promising at times, but for one reason or another, it has not materialized. The Remparts believe that if Rob survives, he will likely receive a kidney from a deceased donor.

Madison, a 15-week-old Labradoodle, is now full of energy and explores every nook and cranny of the house. Adding Madison to the family was Cathy's idea.

“It gave Rob a new sense of excitement,” she said. “It was a wonderful thing.”

Rob agreed that it was a positive decision and said it was another great decision Cathy has made in terms of looking after her mental health.

“Without Cathy I wouldn't be alive,” Rob says. “She looks after me and makes sure I'm mentally well.”

Cathy is trained as a wound care nurse and works as a sales manager for an ASO wound care company. She was allowed to take a cut in her own account to help her husband.

“It interferes with my daily life,” she said of her husband's condition. “I'm constantly worried. Will I go to the hospital and find him dead?

“We had goals and hopes. We imagined what our lives would be like. But now we can't envision the future.”

I didn't understand the seriousness

Rob is East County Observer Not to tell others about my condition in the hopes of a donor coming forward, but because I want others to know that the mistakes I made likely caused my condition to worsen more quickly than it would have if I had behaved better.

The first time he knew his future might be difficult was when his son Brendan was diagnosed with kidney disease at age 7. Brendan was sick, so Rob and his ex-wife (now Debbie Thurmond) took him to the hospital. Doctors discovered a rare blood disorder and ended up removing Brendan's spleen. Pre-surgery tests found holes in Brendan's kidneys that looked like Swiss cheese holes. The radiologist told Rob it looked like autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, a genetic kidney disease.

The genetic condition often causes the kidneys to fail around the age of 70. When Brendan was diagnosed, it was discovered that Rob also had the disease.

Rob says he was mostly concerned about his son at the time, and not so much about himself, and with a successful career in sales and marketing at Campbell and then Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, he didn't have time to worry about a condition that probably wouldn't worsen for years.

“I didn't go to the doctor,” Rob said. “That was a big mistake.”

One thing Rob didn't know was that certain soft drinks contain phosphorus, a mineral generally thought of as essential for providing energy to cells, but which can build up in the blood and worsen kidney disease.

“I was drinking a lot of Dr. Pepper and Coke,” Rob said. “That was my coffee. What you don't know is… you don't know.”

“I was feeling fine. I was exercising and had no symptoms. I thought it was something that would affect me in my 70s. I never thought it would affect me in my 50s.”

In 2010, all the symptoms started to surface. His “filtration rate” steadily declined, and by 2020 he had to join the waiting list for a kidney transplant.

In 2022, Rob needed to undergo dialysis, but he was able to do so with a machine he could use at home.

“I wore the device for nine to 10 hours every night,” he said. “It's an incredible technology. It allows me to live a pretty normal life. I can travel, it sucks out the toxins, and it's covered by insurance.”

He ended up having to undergo dialysis at Fresenius Lakewood Ranch Dialysis Center.

“I'm one of the few people on dialysis who can still do something,” he said. “They go into the dialysis room on a stretcher or in a wheelchair. I can still play pickleball.”

Rob said he was told it usually takes three to five years to receive a kidney transplant.

He has now had both his kidneys removed because they were “the size of a football.”

Worrying from afar

Meanwhile, Brendan, a 2013 graduate of Lakewood Ranch High School, has been living in Denver, Colorado, and working for the Colorado Department of Homelessness for the past 18 months.

“It's hard being away,” Brendan said, “and it makes me wonder if things should change. There's not much I can do for the end goal. It's up to the existing donation system. I know I can help a lot to boost his morale.”

He has faith in a system he may have to use someday.

“In a way, it's a mirror that reflects me,” he says. “Of course, I can't be a donor because I have the same disease.”

His father's travels have inspired him to pay more attention to his health. He drinks as much water as he can and never goes anywhere without a water bottle. He doesn't drink soft drinks or eat red meat. He has frequent kidney tests and his kidneys remain within normal limits.

“We are seeing progress,” he said, referring to doctors experimenting with transplanting pig kidneys into people. A 62-year-old Massachusetts man died earlier this month after living for two months with a transplanted pig kidney.

“Who knows what the future holds?” Brendan said.

Rob, Brendan and Cathy want people to know that if you want to donate a kidney, you don't have to be a match for a friend or family member. Rob has type A negative blood, which matches about 13 percent of the U.S. population.

“That immediately makes things a lot more difficult,” Cathy says.

But anyone with a healthy kidney can donate it in their own name (in this case, Rob) to the United Network for Organ Sharing pool, and UNOS will find a match for that kidney and arrange for a kidney transplant from another match in the pool to Rob.

“Living donors are a much better option,” Cathy says, “You can schedule it and you can better manage the level of rejection, but I don't think many people know about UNOS. The altruism of the donor could save two lives.”

“I can't stress enough the quality of care that Mayo Clinic provides to potential organ donors. They do an incredible physical exam from head to toe, and then if they become a potential organ donor and need an organ, they're put at the top of the list,” Rob said.

UNOS notes that more than 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant and more than 600,000 Americans are on dialysis or surviving after a kidney transplant.

“This is our system and we need to support it,” Brendan said. “I think if more people knew the reality of being a kidney donor, there would be more donors. It doesn't have to be a perfect match.”

Through it all, Rob says he's trying to keep a positive attitude as he waits for the next call.

“I've come to accept the situation,” he said. “I go out to dinner, I play pickleball, I go to the beach. Less than 1 percent of people on dialysis are able to do that. I know it's easy to end dialysis — I'll go into hospice and get off dialysis. I'll be dead in a week. It's on my mind every day. But I know I'm in great hands with my doctors and I feel like I'll get a call.”