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Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the past year, Arkansas RN Regina Allen (on bed) would undergo more than three hours of dialysis to treat her kidney failure. But thanks to Allen's coworker, Gina Benson (right), an LVN at the Medical Center of South Arkansas who donated one of her kidneys to her, Allen is on her way to resuming a normal life.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the past year, Arkansas RN Regina Allen would undergo 3½ hours of dialysis to treat her kidney failure. But thanks to an invaluable gift from a co-worker, Allen is on her way to resuming a normal life. She even plans to take a trip to Florida for her birthday this fall and spend time at the beach.

Allen's co-worker, Gina Benson, an LVN at the Medical Center of South Arkansas, donated one of her kidneys to Allen.

Now that Allen has a working kidney, she probably won't have to worry about dialysis-or the weak spells that follow dialysis sessions-for another 15 to 20 years.

Chances are good that Allen will live longer, said pre-transplant coordinator Susan Turton-Weeks, RN, of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, where Allen and Benson underwent their surgery in April.

Allen, 43, and Benson, 34, have worked together on the acute medical floor at the Medical Center of South Arkansas in El Dorado, for five years. Although Allen was diagnosed with kidney failure in April 2002, Benson never thought of donating her kidney until one day this winter, when she heard Allen joking with some of their co-workers about having their blood drawn to see if it matched hers.

No joke

"People were laughing back and forth with her about it, and I took it a lot differently, I guess, than other people did," Benson said. "To me, it was a plea for her life."

So, at the end of January, Benson told Allen she would undergo a blood test to see if they possessed the same blood type.

A few days later, when Benson told Allen that the blood test had returned-and their blood matched-Allen "was just silent," Benson said. She didn't seem to take the LVN's offer to donate her kidney seriously, Benson said.

But according to Allen, "I got really nervous, and that feeling like you won a million dollars, like you won the jackpot," she said.

Although donors' and recipients' blood types don't have to be the same, they must be compatible. Benson has type O blood and can donate an organ to a person of any blood type-as long as Benson and the recipient are a negative crossmatch.

"She's one of the people at work whom I really admire," Benson said of Allen before the surgery. "I respect the job that she does and the type of nurse that she is. Even through this illness, she comes in and works on Tuesdays and Thursdays when she can, when she's not having dialysis. Her attitude is just unreal to me.

"Most people want to feel sorry for themselves, and they're down and depressed, and with every right. But she is happy and upbeat and [has] a positive attitude and is just as cheery as someone who's perfectly healthy. And I guess that part of her has really struck me, because she's so strong."

Benson's biggest fear wasn't that having only one kidney would diminish her quality of life-which it wouldn't-but that the transplanted kidney would not benefit, and would somehow even harm, Allen.

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