SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - As they recover from a history-making kidney donation, Dana and Damon Bottoms have a new mission: They're trying to spread the word about organ donations.
"100% go out and get tested," Damon told ABC 10News anchor Jared Aarons over Zoom from his home. He and Dana are recovering together and say they feel great, aside from the "normal" pain of any surgery.
"I look like I was run over by a truck," adds Dana. "But I don't feel that way... The recovery time is a lot less."
"It's not as bad as it used to be," Damon says. "I have four little puncture wounds smaller than a penny and a cut where they took the actual kidney out. But it will heal up fine."
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Damon just gave one of his kidneys to Dana, his ex-wife. For the surgery, doctors at Sharp Memorial used the DaVinci 5 robot. The cutting-edge robot gives doctors tactile feedback while they sit at an operating console across the room. It also uses smaller incisions, leading to a faster recovery.
Dana's surgery was the first time the robot had been used in California to put a kidney in a transplant recipient.
"The change, it was almost immediate," Dana says of how fast she began to feel better. "It was pretty quick."
The ease of the surgery and the recovery are just part of their message to get more people to become organ donors.
Damon has Type O blood. He wasn't aware that it made him a universal donor. He believes if more people knew about that, they'd be more likely to donate.
"You can save a life. You don't have to be a needle in a haystack. You can just go out and do it," he says. "If I had known about that, I would have donated (to her) years ago."
There are more than 100,000 people in the US waiting on organ donations. Representatives from Sharp say they also have an Organ Match programwhere patients and donors who aren't compatible can swap with other patients and donors who are.
"Even if its not someone you know, if that's the kind of person you are, you want to help someone, it's not as bad as it used to be," Dana says.
For more information, go to organdonor.gov
