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Smith's fight for a kidney an inspiration to others

23 April 2008 —

By Jon Therrien
NL Staff Writer

“He didn’t live, he existed,” Dora Smith of Rosewood said about her husband Bobby.

Mrs. Smith was speaking of what life has been like for her husband, who has lived with a range of kidney issues since he was 18.

According to Mrs. Smith, her husband was born with only one kidney. He has spent 13 and a half years on dialysis since he was 18.

She added that her husband does not respond well to dialysis.
The Eagle’s Nest Diner in Rosewood will hold a barbecued chicken dinner to benefit Bobby Smith on Saturday, May 3 from 4 to 7 p.m.

When he was 18, Mr. Smith was treated for a pulled muscle, only to later find out that he had a kidney infection.

Shortly after, Mr. Smith received what would be the first of six kidney transplants.

In July of 1984, Mr. Smith headed to Greenville’s Pitt Memorial Hospital along with his sister, Kathy Best of Goldsboro, for his first transplant.

The transplant failed because the incision became infected, and Mr. Smith had to return to dialysis.

In November of 1985, Mr. Smith returned to Pitt for a second transplant. Mrs. Smith said that kidney never worked, because it had been out of the body for too long. As a result, Mr. Smith had to return to dialysis yet again.

On January 1, 1987, Mr. Smith returned to Greenville for his third transplant. Mrs. Smith said that kidney functioned for three years and eight months.

At the end of that time, Mr. Smith’s mother, Diane Smith of Rosewood, offered one of her kidneys to her son; however, since she has an extra vein, Pitt Memorial referred Mr. Smith to the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mrs. Dora Smith said the coolant solution the kidney was placed in after it had been removed from the donor’s body was bad and the kidney failed and had to be removed from her husband’s body just 12 hours later.

Mr. Smith was on dialysis from then on until May of 1997 when had his fifth transplant.

Mrs. Smith said that UNC had referred her husband to the University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh, PA.

That kidney did not even work for the first six months, Mrs. Smith said.

The doctors, according to Mrs. Smith, said the kidney would not work, but all of a sudden, it started working. Mrs. Smith said it failed because it had a blood clot in it.

On December 31, 1997, Mr. Smith went to Pittsburgh for his sixth transplant.

Mrs. Smith said this kidney was a “perfect match.”
She added, “For a perfect match things got a little crazy.”
“He had some heart issues during surgery,” she said.
Additionally, Mrs. Smith said he is fighting to keep this kidney because he has the BK virus, which attacks a person’s kidney.
She added that BK is contracted when a person is a child and it lays dormant. Eighty percent of human adults have antibodies to the BK virus, which generally affects only immunosuppressed people, including people who have had organ transplants.
He has also had some issues with his body rejecting the kidney, Mrs. Smith said.

The doctors, Mrs. Smith said, have prescribed treatments that a local doctor is able to administer.

Mr. Smith also has to hold to a low-potassium diet, which Mrs. Smith describes as mostly bread and meat, and drink six bottles of water a day.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three children, Tabitha, 20, Kathyrn, 18, and Allen, 13.

Tabitha Smith was born with an obstructed kidney and had to undergo surgery at six months old.

Mrs. Smith explained that she and her husband have been limited in the vacations that they can take due to his condition.

She said that when they want to travel somewhere, Mr. Smith has to consult his doctor first and go in for a check-up before he leaves to go on any trips.

She added that her brother-in-law has taken them to Las Vegas twice. One time he had to push Mr. Smith around Vegas in a wheelchair.

The family has also taken a trip following the National Circuit of go-kart racing.

Mr. Smith raced go-karts from the time he was six years old to age 18. His son has also raced and started when he was four.
Mr. Smith and his son spend many Saturdays at Tri-County Kartway in Nahunta.

Mr. Smith said he thinks everyone who needs a kidney transplant should try to get one, and Mrs. Smith encourages persons to become organ donors.

She added that she admires her husband for all he has been through.

“The community’s been good to us,” Mrs. Smith said.

Mrs. Smith teaches exceptional children at Rosewood Elementary School. She said some of her co-workers have donated sick days so she could leave work to take care of her husband.

Her son often spent time at home with his sisters while his mother and father were in Pittsburgh receiving care.

Mrs. Smith said one time she had been away from her family for an extended period and a volunteer pilot program known as Angel Flight flew the children to Pittsburgh on her son’s birthday.

Though Mr. Smith lives in Rosewood, he sometimes wears a baseball cap with a “P” on it. The “P” does not stand for Princeton or even Pittsburgh, where he had his fifth and sixth transplants. Instead, it represents the bodily function associated with a person’s kidneys. It is a trademark of sorts of patients who have been treated at the University of Pittsburgh in the kidney unit.

Rosewood’s Bobby Smith has had six kidney transplants. Born with only one kidney, an infection put him on dialysis and a long road to the “perfect match.” (NL Photo by Therrien)

Bobby Smith and his son Allen spend many Saturdays at Tri-County Kartway in Nahunta. Allen has been on go-karts since the age of four, a family tradition since his dad began racing at age six. (NL Photo by Therrien)

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Saturday, April 26 – Hephzibah Baptist Church Betty Massey Circle yard sale in church parking lot (in Fellowship Building in case of rain), 7 a.m.-noon

Sunday, April 27 – Performance by The Living Waters at Crossroads Church of God of Prophecy in Selma, 6:30 p.m.

Monday, April 28 – WorkKeys career readiness test in Room 220 of Wayne Learning Center at Wayne Community College (pre-register by noon), 5-8 p.m.; “The Politics of Terrorism” lecture in Moffatt Auditorium at Wayne Community College, 7-9 p.m.; Deadline to register for Rosewood First Baptist Church Growing in Grace Women’s Conference to be held May 3 (email bkeen78@hotmail.com or call 734-5571 to register)

Tuesday, April 29 – First session of pediatric advanced life support class at auditorium of Johnston Medical Mall ($200 per class, pre-register by calling 938-7736), 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; QuickBooks workshop in Room 219 of Magnolia Building at Wayne Community College (call 735-5151 ext. 334 by Apr. 25 to register), 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Wednesday, April 30 – Last session of pediatric advanced life support class at auditorium of Johnston Medical Mall, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

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