When Jim Tucker needed a kidney transplant, his fraternity brother and lifelong friend Steve Round stepped up. Now, the two share a bond that’s stronger than ever.
There’s nothing quite like an old friend—especially when that friend saves your life by giving you one of his kidneys at age 72.
Steve Round ’73 and Jim Tucker ’73, M.A. ’76, were fraternity brothers at URI. Their paths crossed several times after graduation, but it wasn’t until they were both married with kids that they fully rekindled their friendship.
By then Jim had parlayed his master’s degree in philosophy into a successful career as a computer programmer, while Steve took a sharp turn from his English degree and went into jewelry manufacturing. Both men changed careers in midlife; Jim to an alternative medicine practice and Steve to teaching elementary school. Life is rarely a straight line.
Their kids grew up together and the two couples vacationed together. But as they approached retirement, Jim was diagnosed with a hereditary kidney condition known as polycystic kidney disease, and suddenly he was facing dialysis and early death. As his kidneys deteriorated, Jim became anemic, and his energy level plummeted.
His only hope was a kidney transplant, but finding a donor was no small task. In Rhode Island, the wait time for a kidney is five to seven years, and half of all patients older than 60 die before they get a transplant.
One day, the two friends were walking with their wives and Jim grew exhausted so quickly he had to go back. On the way, he told Steve how discouraged he was by his inability to find a donor. The next day, Steve called his friend to say he was willing to part with one of his kidneys. Jim was speechless.
“What do you say to someone who offers you a part of their own body?” he says.
But as Steve soon found out, making that decision was the easy part. Getting approved was an ordeal. Both men had to undergo a daunting battery of tests that stretched on for nearly a year—MRI, EKG, blood tests, urine tests, cancer screening, tests for tuberculosis, HIV, venereal disease, bone marrow matching, and more.
When they were nearly done, Jim got a call while he was waiting in the doctor’s office. It was Steve’s wife. Steve had just failed the cardiac stress test and was removed from the donor list. Jim was back to square one.
His kids and other family members had already tried to become donors, but none qualified. So, Jim prepared for dialysis, which, to him, seemed like a slow march to the grave.
“This is the most remarkable part,” says Jim. “Several weeks later I heard from the hospital that they had a potential donor. I had dinner with Steve that night and told him the good news.”
“Jim,” he said after a long pause, “the new donor is me.”
After Steve failed the cardiac stress test, he contacted a cardiologist and arranged for an expensive angiogram test, which confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his heart after all. When he won approval, he didn’t tell Jim right away because he didn’t want him to endure the disappointment if something else went wrong.
Finally, on Feb. 28, 2023, the two friends found themselves on tables in adjoining operating rooms, where two surgeons conducted the operation, one removing the kidney from Steve and the other performing the transplant to Jim. The procedure was supposed to take four hours but took seven and a half hours because the donor kidney had several extra arteries that had to be surgically closed before it could be implanted in Jim.
Ten months later, both of Steve’s kidneys are doing great—one in Steve and the other in Jim. Rather than living his life on a dialysis machine, Jim is back to doing carpentry around the house and restoring old cars.
“He’s back to the old Jim,” says Steve.
—Bill Ibelle
Jim and Steve hope their story will inspire others to consider becoming kidney donors. Information is available at kidney.org/transplantation.
Photo: Courtesy Jim Tucker