Long Island kidney transplant recipient and donor wife celebrate Valentine’s Day with new lease on life
Twenty-five years after saying “I do,” Theresa Simeon and husband Herby remain a perfect match.
The Long Island couple will celebrate a special Valentine’s Day just eight months after Theresa, against overwhelming odds and Herby’s fears, donated a life-saving kidney to her spouse — who still marvels at the improbable sequence of events, but no longer questions the extraordinary circumstances of his new life.
“I got to a point where I realized there are things beyond my understanding,” the 50-year-old Herby said. “There’s a lot of spiritual stuff involved. I don’t understand it still. We thank God for the blessing. This is definitely a miracle.”
A miracle is what the couple needed last April when they launched their quest to find the ailing Herby a new organ at the NYU Langone Health’s transplant institute center in Garden City, L.I.
“It takes usually seven to 10 years to wait for a kidney,” said Dr. Nicole Ali, medical director of the kidney and transplant program. “The odds were stacked against him.”
At least until Theresa started unstacking them.
The couple were an odd pair from the start: A Black man with his roots in Haiti and a white suburban woman of Polish and Italian descent, meeting first on the streets of Queens.
Theresa was a teacher who took her pet rottweiler out for a nightly walk. Herby eventually emerged, ostensibly to see the pooch, and something clicked.
“The dog left,” said the 49-year-old Theresa with a laugh. “And he stayed.”
The two shared a love for the music of the Grateful Dead, and soon for each other. The couple welcomed three children, two girls now ages 23 and 21 and a 10-year-old son. And things were good until Herby’s health started to go bad, his kidney disease first diagnosed in 2004.
By last year, Herby’s deteriorating condition left him barely able to walk 10 feet. His skin took on a yellowish tint, and he had recently started dialysis before the couple’s first meeting with Ali. Theresa’s initial plan was to donate a kidney for another recipient in hopes the move could bump Herby up on the wait list for his own organ.
But she also believed, without much more than blind faith, that her donated kidney could actually be the one to save him.
“She sort of said, ‘I just know I’m the one,’” said Ali. “It’s almost like she made it happen. We checked, and it was pretty amazing. From the beginning she knew one thing: She was going to be the match.”
Ali recalled how Herby was initially reluctant to accept the gift. But Theresa’s faith never lagged until it was finally rewarded and he agreed to the transplant.
“To find out I was a match, and not just a match but a perfect match, it was a no-brainer for me,” Theresa said. “It was the greatest relief to know his body accepted it. Every day we wake up, we’re so grateful.”
Once their rare blood type B match was confirmed, things moved quickly. Within two weeks, the couple were inside surgical units at the suburban facility where Theresa’s kidney was removed on June 25 and transplanted into her spouse.
“The whole experience was amazing for me,” said Theresa. “I had to go in first, they took my kidney. Then they brought him in afterward. Amazing.”
Herby’s condition improved quickly, while Theresa battled a lot of pain and was initially allowed to eat only ice chips while both remained in the hospital.
“And here comes my husband, telling me what a great breakfast he had — ‘Have you tried the frittatas?’ ” she recalled with a laugh.
Herby, now back on his feet and able to take a mile-long walk with his new organ, was even recruited by the hospital to address incoming transplant patients about the procedure.
“They want me to be an example of how easy the process is,” he said. “I’m walking, jumping, skipping around like nothing ever happened to me.”
The couple will celebrate their first post-operation Valentine’s Day with a visit to their surgeon.
“I gave him the kidney to save his life,” said Theresa. “But it saved my life too. His life is my life.”
