Fortunately, for most of us, that last one may never be necessary. But what father would deny his only daughter a chance at life when he is offered the opportunity?
Dave Nettles is originally from Longview, Texas, and is currently a resident at the Nettles Family Cabin at the headwaters of the Arkansas River between Buena Vista and Leadville, Col. He learned a few days before his 76th birthday, in October, 2022, that his youngest child and only daughter, Lauren Nettles Broussard of Carlyss, had some serious issues with kidney functions.
Apparently, Lauren had inherited a genetic condition that was wreaking havoc on her organs. When her brothers were eliminated from donor contention, it was left to her father to volunteer. He had Type O blood and was in good health. There was never any question in his mind that he had to do this.
“I have never been described as a patient man,” admits Nettles, laughing. “Lauren’s numbers continued to drop and there was the toxic buildup in her kidneys, which necessitated dialysis. This became a concern for Lauren, mentally and physically. As her father, I am watching her daily, getting more critically ill. I decided to intervene with the doctors and told them it was time to get her on this temporary dialysis.
“I found it hard to watch as things seemed to be moving at an snail’s pace. But, I finally had to accept that this process had to move slowly. She had to get her health in order. We both had to just calm down and let that angst go.”
Nettles had lost his wife Anne, just days before Hurricane Laura hit SWLA in August 2020. She’d been moved from their Colorado cabin to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, when it became apparent that her long illness from cancer was coming to an end. Her funeral was planned in Lake Charles, where she and Dave had lived in the 1980s.
Mother Nature showed up with a killer hurricane instead. The minister, the music, the obituary, everything was planned, but her burial had to wait for a few weeks. Two years later, Nettles returned to Houston, this time to Houston Methodist Hospital for testing and re-testing so that he could save their child from kidney failure.
During the process, after the testing had progressed enough, Lauren finally was able to go on dialysis for a few weeks. This cleared her for the transplant, and the Nettles family realized that the timing had fallen into place, just like “God had orchestrated it perfectly.”
“Seems like one image showed I had a large size discrepancy in my kidneys,” recalls Nettles. “They always take the left organ for a transplant, and initially, the image showed that it contained two small kidney stones. Dr. Link, the urologist, agreed to do the transplant surgery. His specialty is removing kidney stones while holding the kidney. At 6 am, the morning of the surgery, I was prepped and ready. When I awoke, it was over. I walked the hallway, tested out the next morning and slept in Lake Charles that night. Of course, Lauren’s surgery and recovery were different, but we both recovered more quickly than normal.”
Today, Lauren is back home, working at her job as a special education teacher at W. W. Lewis. Her two sons, Henry and Rhett, are excited that they have their mother back. Dave Nettles gives credit to her husband, Randy, for “running interference for PePaw all the way.”
He also remains grateful to the many prayer warriors that supported the family throughout their journey. “The morning after surgery, Dr. Link came in to report that I had a nice-sized kidney, but it had no stones. I told him those stones just got prayed away so he wouldn’t have to mess with them.”
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