After Life-Saving Kidney Transplant, Local Man and His Wife Urge Increased Awareness of the Need for Organ Donors

It was almost three years ago that a Front Royal mother-of-two went public, frantically seeking help to get her husband a long-awaited kidney transplant to save his own life and allow him to also continue to support his wife and their young children.

As Brady DeRemer, 38, waited in vain to rise to the top of an overly long waiting list for a donated kidney, his wife, Jenna, seized the opportunity to formulate an emotional public request for a “live donor” by first giving a moving speech at a Rotary Club of Front Royal membership meeting, then locally distributing a self-styled pamphlet titled “Searching for a Kidney Donor” in and around Warren County and also via social media.

Jenna and Brady, married shortly after graduating college together, had lived for 10 years in the shadow of Brady’s deteriorating renal kidney function, registering at the Fairfax INOVA Hospital on its transplant list to no avail.

Jenna’s mantra at the time of her public plea — “If we don’t ask, we won’t receive” — received the immediate attention of this reporter, a Front Royal Rotarian, with an article published by the Royal Examiner that was also distributed to Rotary clubs around the nation titled: “Front Royal mother-of-two searches for a kidney donor — for her husband.”

Jenna and Brady DeRemer sit down with Malcolm Barr Sr. to reflect on the couple’s experience in gaining a kidney transplant for Brady last year after Jenna got aggressive in publicizing her husband’s need, attracting the attention of many, including Rotary member and Royal Examiner reporter Barr. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

The article went viral, and the DeRemers were flooded with offers, one of which came from a Pennsylvania woman who ultimately was accepted by VINOVA doctors, one of whom, Dr. James Piper, performed the 90-minute transplant surgery on May 24 of last year.

“It was a real blessing,” commented recipient Brady DeRemer, who later resumed his work in cyber security for the Sony Corporation in Reston, Virginia, and now is able to continue to hike, swim, walk, and generally romp around with his children, Reagan, 9, and Hudson, 6.

The past year for Brady has been difficult, involving sundry hospital visits. He goes for yet another check-up at VINOVA Fairfax next week while maintaining a strict diet that includes swallowing up to 35 medications daily between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. He told me the new kidney is expected to last about 15 years, which would take him to age 53 before further surgery is needed to replace it.

During our transplant follow-up interview, we noted the distinctive shirts the couple was wearing to mark the national “Donate Life” month, which is April, just a short week away. The couple urges the public to get on the “transplant” list – for not only kidneys but for liver, pancreas, and other body parts – at their local hospitals.

Following the interview, the DeRemers posed with reporter Barr, displaying their ‘Donate Life’ Organ Transplant Awareness Month (April) T-shirts. Brady sports the slogan ‘Contains Recycled Parts’, which his wife and two children are very thankful for.

“There are more people than anybody realizes that need an organ transplant. And the waiting lists continue to be too long for many,” Jenna said. Recently published figures indicate some 100,000 people in the United States are wait-listed for an organ transplant. With a shortage of needed organs, transplant centers (hospitals) must choose among hopeful patients, accepting only those candidates deemed to have the greatest need and highest chances of success, the report notes.

Jenna and Brady plan a trip to York, Pennsylvania, on June 8 for a “transplant party” at the home of the kidney donor who provided Brady with a life-saving kidney last year. To mark April as “Donate Life” month, the Front Royal couple encourages people to get involved by contacting their local hospitals to offer transplants, both by living donors for additional functioning organs and those who wish to donate their surviving functioning organs following their own deaths.

(Malcolm Barr Sr. is a retired journalist who has been over the past 22 years a contributing writer for various local newspapers. He lives with his two dogs in the Rockland area of Warren County).