Longtime local legislator George Bunting learned recently that his kidneys are failing and that he needs a transplant. State Sen. Bunting (D-20th), who has represented the Bethany Beach area as a state representative and senator in Dover for nearly 24 years, was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease more than a decade ago.
It is a fairly common disease, marked by cysts on the kidneys that can lead to kidney failure. Bunting is in the last stage of the chronic disease, in which treatment through dialysis or surgery is necessary to survive. Even as recently as several weeks ago, though, Bunting thought the disease might never lead to surgery.
“It kind of catches you sideways,” Bunting said of learning that he needed a transplant. “I’m just starting down the road. It doesn’t have anything to do with my day-to-day fortune at this point. There’s always somebody with a lot worse situation”
Bunting, 62, planned to visit Christiana Hospital in Stanton on Aug. 8 to begin the long series of tests leading up to kidney transplantation surgery and the search for a donor. Bunting said his wife and son plan to undergo tests to determine whether they would be suitable donors.
Prospective donors must have compatible blood and tissue types with the recipient and be in good overall health. The testing process also includes a psychological evaluation. Donors can include living family members, friends or strangers or non-living donors who are compatible. Wait times for non-living donor kidneys can range from less than 30 days to more than five years depending on age, blood type and numerous other factors, according to national data.
State Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf (D-14th), who donated a kidney to a close friend last year, said the process, from testing to the surgery to recovery — which lasted 12 weeks for him — is a grueling one.
Schwartzkopf, a good friend of Bunting’s, talked to the senator recently about the situation and put him in contact with his friend who went through the procedure last year.
“George is going through the bewilderment stage right now. He’s in the information-gathering stage,” Schwartzkopf said. “He’s very pragmatic about it. He knows what it is. He knows what he has to do. He’s not feeling sorry for himself. Of all the people I know in leg hall, he probably has more integrity than any in the bunch,” Schwartzkopf added about his fellow legislator, whom he often asks to sponsor bills in the Senate. “He’s a stand-up guy.”
Roughly 20 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease, including polycystic kidney disease, according to the National Kidney Foundation, a voluntary organization that supports the education and research of kidney disease and works to expand treatment services. With no cure for the disease, the only treatments are dialysis and transplantation surgery.
The disease reduces, and sometimes completely eliminates, the kidneys’ ability to perform their regular tasks, which include removing waste, fluids and toxins from the body. Kidneys also release hormones into the body that help regulate blood pressure; produce red blood cells that deliver oxygen from the lungs to body tissues; and promote strong bones.
According to the foundation, the two main causes for the chronic kidney disease are high blood pressure, for which Bunting takes medication, and diabetes. Polycystic kidney disease is genetic; and Bunting believes his fathered unknowingly suffered from the disease.
According to national statistics gathered after all kidney transplant surgeries in this country from 1997 to 2004, almost 95 percent of patients in Bunting’s age group survived the first year after their operation. That number drops to 87 percent after three years and 78 percent after five. Most recipients lead full lives — albeit medicated to avoid rejection — after surgery.
Former state representative from the Dover area and successful recipient Gerald Buckworth received a kidney from his wife in 1994.
“The news was shocking,” Buckworth said of when he first heard of his own fortune. “Driving home from the doctor’s office, I don’t know how I made it home. My mind was going a mile a minute. When you first hear it, it sort of knocks you down.”
After his surgery, the since-retired legislator worked for two more years in the Caesar Rodney School District and served in the state legislature for 12. Following a rejection that planted him back in the hospital for 10 days less than a month after his surgery, his life after the operation has been free of complications related to his kidney. He still works, part-time, as a lobbyist.
“I play golf, travel. I take my medicine, and I go to my checkups and pay close attention,” Buckworth said. “I feel great.”