The 1995 NPC National champion was diagnosed with massive kidney failure in early 2000, and since then he has been forced to endure four-times-a-week dialysis treatments while waiting for a kidney transplant to replace his two damaged organs. His sister and two brothers were willing to donate, but none was a match for Don. That left him facing the real possibility that he would not receive a transplant before dialysis would begin to take its toll on his body. Despite his unending optimism, Don was too far down on the donor list to hold out much hope.
Then, in a dramatic gesture, Don's older sister, Michelle, took a courageous and unprecedented step to save her brother. Michelle, 38, became the first volunteer in a new program that allows family members to donate organs to strangers in order to move their loved ones to the top of the donor list. In a story that received national attention, Michelle gave up one of her kidneys on February 12, 2002, putting Don at the front of the Washington Regional Transplant Consortium's register to receive the next available compatible kidney. It was a remarkably selfless act that received the attention of CNN and other news organizations. Shortly thereafter, on March 23, Don got the call he'd been hoping for.
"My doctor, Amy Lu, called me at 2 AM," Don told FLEX. "At five o'clock the next evening, I went into surgery."
The successful procedure was performed at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. After a couple of weeks of adjusting to the new kidney and going through rigorous testing, Long was told that his body had accepted the organ. Once again, he was whole.
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