Wake Forest Baseball Coach Donates Kidney To Player

February 8, 2011 /

Tribune-Democrat.com (Johnstown, Pa.)

JOHNSTOWN — Kevin Jordan has never played a game for the Wake Forest University baseball team and there’s a chance that he never will.

But Jordan made a commitment to the Demon Deacons and coach Tom Walter. For Walter, a Johnstown native, that’s a two-way street.

Walter proved that on Monday morning, when he donated a kidney to Jordan.

“Both surgeries went very well,” said Dr. Kenneth Newell, the lead surgeon on the team that performed the operation. “We are pleased with how each patient is progressing. We expect each will recover fully.”

The surgery, which took nearly 5½ hours to complete, was necessary because Jordan suffers from ANCA vasculitis, a type of autoimmune swelling caused by autoantibodies, which destroy the body’s natural ability to fight germs.

The disease causes leaking of blood and protein into the urine and, ultimately, leads to kidney failure.

For Walter, the decision to donate was an easy one.

“My No. 1 priorities in my life are my family and my team,” he said.

“I’ll do anything to help any one of those people.”

’Divine intervention’

When Jordan signed with Wake Forest in November 2009, there was no indication that he was sick. The runner-up in the Bo Jackson 5-Tool Contest and the 43rd-ranked high school player according to Perfect Game, Jordan was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 19th round.

Instead of signing a professional contract, the lanky left-handed hitting outfielder from Columbus, Ga., opted to join Walter, who was in his first year as head coach of the Demon Deacons.

The impact that Walter had made at his previous school, the University of New Orleans, helped convince Jordan it was the right place for him. Walter guided the school to success on and off the field while recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

“You can look a person in the eye and see if they mean what they say and say what they mean,” Jordan’s father, Keith, said in a conference call with reporters last week. “You could see that in him. And when we went to the Internet, you could look at some of the things that happened in New Orleans, and how he worked with the team and the players, and the comments that were coming back from some of the people.”

Now, the Jordans can’t imagine what might have happened if their son hadn’t decided to forgo pro baseball to play at Wake Forest.

“I think somebody kind of mentioned it as divine intervention, as to how he even got to Wake Forest,” Keith Jordan said.

Out of nowhere

When Kevin Jordan initially got sick in January 2010, doctors at first thought it was the flu. But his health problems lingered, and he lost 30 pounds and played only sparingly in his senior season of high school.

Three months later, doctors at Emory University Hospital informed him that he had ANCA vasculitis and that his kidneys were only functioning at 15 percent to 20 percent of capacity.

Jordan took about 35 pills per day to combat the disease, but it did little. By the time he enrolled at Wake Forest in August, his kidney function was down to 8 percent and he needed dialysis 18 to 20 hours a day.

Walter got his first insight into the problems that Jordan was facing.

“Five minutes into that (appointment) I was like ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Walter said during a conference call with reporters on Thursday. “I had no idea what Kevin had been going through in the course of the summer and spring. Until that doctor’s appointment, I had no idea. It gave me a whole new perspective on everything.

“That’s when the reality and the gravity of the situation hit me.”

Despite the illness, Jordan performed well academically at Wake Forest, passing all of his classes.

“First and foremost, Kevin even showing up on our campus was a courageous act on his part – far more courageous than anything I’m doing,” Walter said.

“For him to be a freshman in college, not knowing anybody on campus, having to be in a room on dialysis, I think just shows incredible … courage.”

One by one, all of Jordan’s family members were eliminated as possible kidney donors.

On Dec. 20, Walter underwent blood testing to see if he was a match. He passed that and faced a second round of testing in early January.

Answered prayers

On Jan. 28, the day of the Demon Deacons’ first official day of practice, Walter got the call that he’d been waiting for.

“Over that five-week period, the anxiety of not knowing what was going to happen to me, that was the hardest part for me,” Walter said.

“Mentally, I had already made the decision that I was going to do it. My biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to do it, that they would tell me that I wouldn’t be a match. I would have been very disappointed if I had gotten that bad news.”

Walter told his family as well as the administration at Wake Forest that he was a match and wanted to proceed. Both supported his decision to donate the kidney to Jordan.

“Once they got past the initial shock, there was nothing but support,” he said. “There was never a time when anyone in my family or Wake Forest said, ‘Hey, you need to reconsider this.’ It was always full support, which made my decision a lot easier.”

For the Jordan family, the news was heaven-sent.

“Sheer happiness (is what Kevin felt upon hearing that Walter had agreed to the operation),” Keith Jordan said. “We knew that our prayers had been answered. Kevin, you can just imagine the smile on his face.”

Walter is expected to be in the hospital for at least three days and will stay in Atlanta for about a week. After that, he’s ready to get back to the business of baseball. He’s hoping to watch practice from the stands and plans to be a part of the Demon Deacons’ season-opening series at Louisiana State in less than two weeks, even if he has to back off the throttle a bit.

“You’re probably not going to see me charging out of the dugout arguing calls, but I’m going to be there, I can promise you that,” he said.

Walter hopes that in two months he’ll be able to do all of his favorite things: Playing with his children, running, hitting the golf course and coaching baseball.

’Geting him healthy’

Walter is just hoping that Jordan can lead a normal life. If he can return to the baseball diamond, it’s a bonus.

“Our focus is on getting him healthy,” Jordan’s father said.

“What they’re saying (is), in six to eight weeks, he can start swinging a bat. Maybe in a little after eight weeks he can do a little more working out. Our expectation is in June, he can be back in school, getting ready for the summer semester and the fall semester.”

As amazing as Walter’s story is – and it’s attracted national attention – it doesn’t surprise those who know him best.

“He’s always been very giving to all of the kids he’s coached,” said Randy Mazey, an assistant coach at Texas Christian University. “It doesn’t surprise me at all, but that says a lot about him as a person.”

For Greater Johnstown High School coach Dee Dee Osborne, who coached Walter in high school and in the AAABA League, Walter always delivers, whether it’s as a volunteer at Osborne’s camp or helping to get players the equipment they need.

“We have kids that don’t have gloves or I need bats,” Osborne said.

“Right now, he’s going to send me catcher’s and first baseman’s gear. Anybody that wanted any help in Cambria County, Tommy will be there for him.”


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