Kidney recipient reunites with care team for 40th anniversary of pioneering transplant

“This looks familiar.”

Larry Rasmussen looked up at the hospital building where he had donated a kidney to his infant son, Mark. It had been 40 years to the day since the operation.

Mark was with him, as were Mark’s three children – Larry's grandchildren. At the former hospital building, now a part of the University of Minnesota Medical School campus, the family was reunited with members of the care team that saved Mark’s life by doing what few centers could at the time – transplanting a kidney from a living, adult donor into a small infant.

Born with end-stage kidney disease

The first year of Mark Rasmussen’s life was difficult. Born one month early in 1980 with end-stage kidney disease, Mark struggled to grow. His parents wondered how long he had to live.

Mark’s right kidney was severely underdeveloped, and his left kidney was not functioning as it should. Neither kidney was doing its job – filtering waste and toxins out of Mark’s body.

Kidney disease is extremely rare in newborns. The treatment options are dialysis or a kidney transplant. Forty years ago, these treatments were not yet widely available for newborns. Thankfully, one of Mark’s doctors in his home state of Nebraska connected the family with the University of Minnesota – one of the only centers with the expertise to perform kidney transplant in infants. The family travelled up to Minneapolis, where Mark’s father, Larry, donated a kidney to his son on Dec. 3, 1981.

This December, Mark and his parents wanted to return to what is now M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center. They reconnected with Mark’s care team last Friday and celebrated the gift of life 40 years to the day after his transplant.

“We thought Mark might not make it.”

When Mark was born, his parents were living on a farm near Mead, Nebraska. His father, Larry, is a farmer. His mother, Melinda, spent over three decades as a pediatric nurse.

“Mark wasn’t due until October, but I went into labor in September,” said Melinda. “They sent us home after three days in the hospital. Five weeks later, Mark was diagnosed with kidney failure. He was born a month early because that’s all his kidneys could take.”

With both of his kidneys failing, Mark’s health quickly began getting worse. Mark’s care team in Nebraska worked to keep him alive as long as they could, but there was no solution they could offer the family.

“We had been told by our doctors in Nebraska several times that Mark wouldn’t make it. He was in and out of the hospital his whole first year,” said Melinda. “We ran a farm, and both of our fathers were farmers. We were told seven different times that Mark wasn’t going to make it – each time, we called our families out of the fields so they could say goodbye.”

Pioneering kidney transplant

One of Mark’s doctors in Nebraska – Urologist Ansar Khan, MD – connected the Rasmussen family to doctors at what is now M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center. One of these doctors, M Health Fairview Pediatric Nephrologist Michael Mauer, MD, is still involved in kidney disease research. He reconnected with the family during their reunion last week.

“Our transplant team helped make kidney donations from an adult relative to a small baby possible,” said Mauer, who is also Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “At the time of Mark’s transplant, we were one of a few hospitals worldwide capable of performing this type of procedure. We were helping get surgeons and medical professionals from across the globe trained in the methods developed here.”

Speaking with Mark’s children, Mauer used his hands to demonstrate how small their father was at the time of transplant – and how surgeons were able to place an adult kidney into an infant.

Mark’s surgery was performed by pioneering transplant surgeon John Najarian, MD, who passed away last year. As chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Najarian helped develop the university into one of the world’s leading transplantation programs. Along with a team of surgeons and other specialists – including Mauer – he expanded the boundaries of what was possible, especially in young children.

Mark stayed at the hospital for a month after transplant and the family celebrated his second Christmas together, away from home. Mauer and his team cared for Mark after surgery, again leading the way in post-operative care for this relatively new procedure.