Shelby Vollnogle and wife Megan talk about their organ donation journey, after returning to East Palestine from more pretransplant testing at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Vollnogle, who operates Beefy Buckaroo food truck, is donating a kidney to an ailing customer. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)

LISBON– Seventeen individuals die each day while waiting for an organ transplant, according to statistics from the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Another person is added to that waiting list every six minutes.

Village resident Bob Milhorn had been the list awaiting a kidney donation for several years. He also became a regular smash burger customer at Shelby and Megan Vollnogle’s popular food truck in Lisbon.

Fate was at work.

At the start of January, the couple noticed that he hadn’t been back for a while and inquired, learning that Milhorn had been sick. After hearing the severeness of Milhorn’s ailment and his need for a kidney, the couple theorized on ways they could help with Shelby finally deciding to get tested to see if one of them was a match.

Milhorn has a lot to be grateful for during this holiday. Shelby Vollnogle is scheduled this week to donate a kidney at a Pittsburgh hospital.

Vollnogle, who is a direct kidney donor for Milhorn, explained that he is excited about this opportunity to help and said there is a lot of benefits to being an organ donor that people don’t know about.

For example, the surgery is less evasive that it was decades before.

Emily Smith, who is a registered nurse employed by Allegheny General Hospital’s organ transplant program, explained there is only a three inch incision necessary for the removal of the kidney for transplant.

This shortens donors recovery time before they can return to their normal activity.

The Vollnogle-Milhorn transplant will take place at UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center).

Vollnogle, who now lives in East Palestine with his new bride, said that doctors checked everything from blood compatibility and scans before accepting him officially as a donor.

That is in between staffing his food truck at regular stops throughout Columbiana County and marrying fiancee Megan in October.

For Megan, she had no qualms about the couple’s need to help from day one.

In fact, it turned out that this stranger was not completely unknown to the Vollnogles.

She explained that she had met Milhorn’s brother three years ago when she had bought a vehicle in Calcutta. It was years later when the couple learned from Milhorn’s brother about Bob’s failing health.

Although he is excited about his pending donation to Milhorn, Vollnogle said there is a significant number of children also waiting on kidneys, and there are ways to help them too.

For example, live donors of smaller statute can act as donors for children.

AGH’s Smith encourages potential donors to get screened to see if they too can give the gift of life. New Manchester resident Jodi Murphy continues her wait on the list for a kidney from a live donor.

Much of the search for a compatible organ through both hospitals fall on the recipient, explained Murphy, who also like Milhorn is a patient through UPMC.

Due to the progression of her illness, Murphy is limited to receiving a live donor kidney.

As part of these donation marketing kits prerecipients are given, in addition to the flyers and business cards, Murphy said they also are urged to place newspaper ads and billboards in their communities to improve their chance of getting an organ.

Murphy, now on home dialysis, said she prefers to leave the quest in God’s hands. “If it meant to be, He will provide.”

In her case, family members already have stepped forward for testing with all disqualified due to the own potential issues.

There are a few ailments that are dealbreakers for hospital personnel in the consideration of donors, including meningitis, tuberculosis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (aka Mad Cow) disease.

Doctors determine whether organs are suitable for donation on an individual basis. While some may be healthy for transplant at the time of death, others may not be especially from a cadaver. For example, in the case of a diabetic donor, while they may be able to donate their heart or lungs, it would disqualify the donation of a pancreas.

In some cases, HIV-positive individuals can serve as donors for HIV-positive transplant candidates, according to Lifesource.

Luckily Vollnogle was a match, but there are other avenues if he wouldn’t have been.

Often a compatible organ may be found among another no matching pairing, where the one donor is a match for the other recipient and vice versa.

If you are interested in giving Murphy the gift of life, either visit online livingdonorreg.upmc.com or call 412-647-gift.

Those interested in making a donation to a nonspecified recipient can register to get tested at the National Kidney Registry’s contact page, nkr.donorscreen.org.