Some dads might get gift cards, steak dinners or new golf clubs for Father’s Day.
Yet Jose Calixto, 56, received something far more significant for the occasion this year.
A few weeks ago, Jonathan Calixto, 30, saved his father’s life by donating a healthy kidney.
“I never hesitated,” the son told Fox News Digital.
He was able to live with the disease without intervention for several years, but his condition took a turn for the worse in mid-2021. Calixto was forced to start dialysis, a treatment that removes waste and toxins from the blood when the kidneys can’t do the job.
Jonathan Calixto, 30 (left), donated a kidney to his dad, Jose Calixto, 56 (right), on March 29, 2023. Fox News Digital spoke to father and son about how the operation changed their lives. (Jose and Jonathan Calixto)
After two years of receiving dialysis three times a week, for four hours per session, Calixto had become so frail and exhausted that he was forced to retire from his job, he told Fox News Digital.
In spite of the dialysis, Calixto’s kidneys were continuing to fail. Ultimately, he was hospitalized.
“Living donors really have the ability to change a recipient’s life in a dramatic way.”
Jose Calixto (left) and Jonathan Calixto are pictured at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on the morning of their surgery. (Jose and Jonathan Calixto)
“When a donor and a recipient do not have compatible blood types — for example, if a donor with blood type A wants to give a kidney to a recipient with blood type B — a paired exchange, or ‘swap,’ can be arranged with another donor-recipient pair,” Dr. Sehgal explained to Fox News Digital.
Next, they did a histocompatability test, which checks to see if the pair’s tissues match.
There was a 50% chance the Calixtos would have a tissue match.
FRIENDS SHORTEN KIDNEY PATIENTS’ LONG WAITS FOR TRANSPLANTS TO MERE MONTHS BY DONATING ORGANS
“A child to a parent is a 3/6 antigen match, which is a better match than other, non-related donors,” explained Elaine Mitchell, Mount Sinai’s living donor transplant coordinator.
That means there was a 50% chance the Calixtos would have a tissue match.
“Sometimes, especially when people are blood relatives, they may be very similar genetically, and may even be what is called a ‘perfect match,’” Sehgal said. “This means their immune system is less likely to reject the new kidney.”
“For me, it was never a question. I knew that if I could get the chance, I wanted to do it.”
Over the next few weeks, the Calixtos each met with their teams of transplant surgeons and coordinators to ensure that both men were healthy and fully committed to the process.
Doctors repeatedly asked Calixto’s son whether he was sure he wanted to go through the organ donation.
Dad Jose Calixto is shown on the morning of his transplant surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. (Jose Calixto)
“They asked me so many times: ‘Are you sure? Do you really want to do this? Are you worried about anything?’” the son said.
For Jose Calixto’s part, he was “not on board” initially, his son told Fox News Digital.
“He didn’t like the idea of someone giving up a piece of their body, especially his son — it felt like it was going to cut my life in half, in a sense,” Jonathan Calixto said. “So he was hesitant about moving forward at first.”
With more time and research, Calixto became more comfortable with the idea, but was still more concerned about his son’s health than his own.
Any kidney transplant comes with some degree of risks — including bleeding, infection, graft failure and negative reactions to the medications, transplant surgeon Arvelakis said.
Jose and Jonathan Calixto are shown arriving at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on the morning of the transplant surgery. (Jose and Jonathan Calixto)
But for the Calixtos, the doctors described the procedure — which took place on March 29 — as “smooth sailing.”
Calixto’s son was discharged the very next day with no issues, while Calixto came home three days after the surgery. His body accepted the donated kidney with no significant problems.
Recipients are monitored very closely after surgery, Mitchell said — twice a week for the first month, once a week for the second month and usually once a month for the first year.
During these appointments, the doctors check bloodwork to make sure the kidney is functioning properly and make any necessary adjustments to medications.
After the two-year mark, donors should get annual checkups with their primary care physician, Mitchell said.
“Most people who receive a kidney transplant are able to live normal lives as long as they take their medications, follow up with their transplant teams and take certain precautions,” said Sehgal.
With his new kidney, Calixto is no longer weak and exhausted. His energy and appetite have skyrocketed, and he is starting to resume some of the activities he couldn’t do while he was on dialysis, he said.
Most importantly, he has hope again — hope that he’ll live a long and healthy life, and that he’ll eventually be able to return to work, he added.
“I’ve been given another chance at life,” Calixto said.
“Staying on dialysis long-term increases people’s risks of heart disease, circulatory problems, debility [weakness] and death.”
The wait time for a cadaver kidney (a donation from a deceased person) is typically between four and eight years in the New York area — and nationally, up to half of people on the waiting list will die without ever receiving a transplant, Sehgal pointed out.
“Living donors really have the ability to change a recipient’s life in a dramatic way,” she said.
“They are heroes who are truly giving the gift of life.”
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About half the kidney transplants that are performed at Mount Sinai each year come from living donors, she added.
For other families suffering from kidney failure, Jose and Jonathan Calixto wholeheartedly encourage donation as a life-saving and life-changing decision.
“If you have a loved who is going through kidney failure or is on dialysis, maybe you can be the one who gives them another chance at life,” Jose Calixto said. “I know how much it has meant to me.” (Jonathan and Jose Calixto)
“If you have a loved who is going through kidney failure or is on dialysis, maybe you can be the one who gives [that person] another chance at life,” Calixto said. “I know how much it has meant to me.”
Both father and son are exceedingly grateful for the care they received at Mount Sinai.
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“I’m super grateful that they took care of us and were able to find a good option, while keeping us healthy and safe,” Calixto’s son said.
