Regional Industry & News

LAKE LILLIAN — When Kris Kaiser took a seat near Russel Blad at the Horseshoe Bar in Lake Lillian around Christmas 2024, she knew he was going through serious health challenges. Diagnosed with end-stage renal disease over a decade prior, Blad was now on home-based dialysis treatments three times a day.

Blad chatted to those around him, including Kaiser, about how he had been put on the transplant list for a kidney. The outcomes are always better when the kidney comes from a living donor, but because end-stage renal disease is a genetic condition, Blad was unable to turn to his family for help, including his sons. If Blad was going to receive a new kidney, it would have to come from outside the family.

To help move the search forward, his medical team at the Mayo Clinic provided Blad with information to pass along to anyone interested in testing to be a match.

“He told me his whole story, and he sent me a picture of the donation card,” Kaiser recalled. “Then I just sat on it and didn’t do anything. I sort of just waited.”

Blad was never told the names of people who called the clinic about being his kidney donor. Instead, he just continued his thrice-daily dialysis treatments while still living as full a life as possible.

His method of dialysis treatment, manual peritoneal dialysis, allowed him to do the procedure at home without using a machine. Not everyone is eligible for this treatment option, but for Blad it worked the best.

No matter where he was, at home in Lake Lillian, in a farm field or even on hunting trips, as long as Blad had his dialysis fluid, he could keep up with his treatments.

“Once I started doing it manually, I could get more medicine in me and more toxins out of me,” Blad said.

A few months after the Christmas party, Kaiser got some very bad news. One of her closest friends, Joyce Anne Damhof, had been diagnosed with cancer for the second time and the prognosis wasn’t good.

As Damhof went through grueling cancer treatments and started to grow weaker, Kaiser had to watch helplessly.

“I was just so frustrated and I couldn’t help Joyce Anne,” Kaiser said.

However, Kaiser did know someone else that she could possibly help. After having serious conversations with her husband, Gary, their three kids and Damhof, Kaiser finally pulled up the information Blad had given her months ago about the Mayo Clinic’s kidney transplant program.

Potentially donating a kidney isn’t an easy or a quick process. First, Kaiser had to make sure she and Blad had compatible blood types. When that went through, it still took weeks of phone calls and video chats before Mayo scheduled her for two days of medical testing in late July 2025.

At that point, Kaiser decided it was time to let Blad and his partner, Karlene Peterson, know exactly what Kaiser had been up to.

When Kaiser sat Blad and Peterson down and told them her plan, Blad was a bit blindsided. He was unsure why she would do something so life-changing for him. Kaiser said after she found out Blad was planning to raise money for Damhof during his upcoming birthday party, she was even more sure it was the right thing to do.

A few weeks later, Damhof died, adding to the emotional weight of what Kaiser was trying to do. Damhof had urged Kaiser to start the organ donation process. Following her best friend’s funeral, Kaiser traveled to the Mayo Clinic for the tests.

“I thought it was testing to see if I was a match, but it was really testing to see about me, if I could handle the surgery,” Kaiser said. With Damhof’s death so fresh, Kaiser was more determined than ever to be successful. “I’m like, Kris, you need to do this.”

She did everything the doctors asked of her, including losing weight and dropping her blood sugar and blood pressure numbers. Then came several weeks of waiting, as the doctors conversed and decided which cases were the most critical.

At the same time, Blad was doing everything he could do to remain healthy as well. Finally, in October 2025, the news came through — the donation could go forward.

“We were still drying corn. I was doing dialysis, sitting in the camper” set up at the dryer specifically for dialysis treatments when he was told, Blad said.

It took some persuasion for Blad to go through with the donation surgery. He admits he was scared, nervous and didn’t like the idea of being totally out of control of what was happening to him.

His dialysis treatments were going OK and he was still able to do many of the things he liked to do.

“The dialysis was a pain in the ass, but I was doing it and I could live with it. I could control it,” Blad said.

Blad did agree to the donation, and it took place on Nov. 18, 2025. To everyone’s relief, it was practically a textbook case. Kaiser’s kidney was removed and transplanted to Blad and connected to his renal system. It began working right away.

Within a few days, both Kaiser and Blad had been discharged from inpatient care. Blad had to remain near Mayo for a few weeks, staying at the Gift of Life Transplant House, to make sure his body wasn’t going to suddenly reject the new organ.

Kaiser, on the other hand, was able to go home to Bird Island soon after the surgery.

“It is amazing what doctors can do,” Blad said.

Both still had weeks of recovery and medical appointments ahead of them, but the main hurdle had been cleared. The kidney was working and Blad no longer had to do dialysis.

A year after Kaiser first sat down next to Blad at a Christmas party, they were back at the same bar in Lake Lillian. Kaiser told their story to the gathered crowd and Blad made a surprise appearance as Santa Claus.

Now several months after surgery, Blad and Kaiser have grown into their new normal. Blad will have to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life and regularly see a doctor to make sure everything is still working. Kaiser will also have to make sure she keeps her remaining kidney healthy.

Despite the challenges, Kaiser is so happy she donated her kidney to Blad. She believes it helped her through the emotional toll of her friend’s death and she feels blessed that everything turned out so well.

Agreeing to become an organ donor is a big decision, but it is one Kaiser would definitely recommend.

“It is so fulfilling and when it is a success story, it is pretty cool,” Kaiser said.

Blad hopes his story pushes more people, especially men, to become organ donors, whether it is becoming a living donor like Kaiser or putting the donor heart on their driver’s license should the worst happen. Blad knows better than anyone how life-changing that selfless act can be.

“It is a hell of a gift,” Blad said. “I really appreciate what Kris did for me.”