‘Sharing the health’

POST FALLS – Forty-eight-year-old Steve Goins looks like he could bench-press 300 pounds without breaking a sweat. But lately, the muscular Post Falls man says he gets so tired by the end of the day, he can’t even muster enough energy to go places with his wife.

Goins has a deadly kidney disease, diagnosed about a year and a half ago, he said. He has been undergoing five-hour dialysis treatments three times a week ever since.

“When something like this hits, you find out you’re not invincible like you think you are,” said Goins, a boat mechanic and laborer at Tobler Marina in Hayden. He still is employed full time despite having to spend the equivalent of almost half a workweek receiving medical treatments he can’t live without.

Goins says he gets up at 4:30 a.m. and arrives at the Post Falls dialysis clinic by 5 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Treatments take about five hours. Then he puts in a full day at the marina.

Goins hates having to be tethered to dialysis equipment, but “they’re the things that pretty much keep you alive,” he said. “My whole life revolves around the machines.”

He and his wife, Page, are dreaming of the day when that’s scheduled to change. That day is Sept. 11.

That morning, a generous, healthy young Post Falls woman – who works with Page Goins – will give Steve Goins one of her kidneys. The surgical procedures will be done at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane.

Donor Jennifer Spears, 28, offered her kidney over lunch when she first learned her friend and co-worker Page Goins was upset and concerned about Steve Goins’ end-stage renal failure. Spears works in the pharmacy and Page Goins is nursing staff coordinator at Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital in Post Falls.

They had gathered in the hospital cafeteria when Spears broke the good news.

It moved Page Goins to tears. Steve Goins said he reacted in disbelief.

He said others had made the same promise, but they always had backed out or proved not be a physical match.

However, a thorough medical vetting proved Spears to be a perfect match.

Because Spears will be a “live donor,” her kidney is more likely to function properly for Goins. Using arthroscopic surgery to remove the organ, doctors then will use the same technique to implant the kidney in Goins.

His new kidney will be located near his hip flexors in the front of his body, he said. His diseased kidneys eventually will shrivel up and stop working altogether.

“I’m just glad to help,” said Spears. “It’s just the right thing to do.”

Goins is beginning to get excited about the prospects of returning to a machine-free lifestyle.

“I’m so jacked, it not’s even funny,” he said.

Spears says she hopes her gift helps educate and inspire others to become organ donors.

“I want to get the word out. Instead of sharing the wealth, I’m sharing the health,” she said.

Page Goins said Spears, who’s the same age as their daughter, feels like a member of the family.

“Now we have two daughters,” Page Goins said.

After surgery, it’ll take Steve Goins at least a couple of months to heal. Spears will be convalescing for four to six weeks; her employer has granted her an excused leave of absence.

The three believe divine intervention brought them together.

“God has his hand in this. We absolutely believe he did this,” Page Goins said.