Lorin Kilburg’s feeling a lot better these days. Recuperating at home in rural Bellevue, the lifelong eastern Iowa farmer has a new kidney donated by his daughter. Kilburg says about four years after his health started to fail, his doctor told him he’d need dialysis before long, or a transplant.He was going to be put on a “cadaver list” to get a kidney from someone who’d died, though his doc said a live donor kidney would do better. Word got out and relatives, kids and even neighbors lined up to be tested to see if they could be donors. Two of Kilburg’s four daughters were a match, and the oldest was chosen to be the donor. Her surgery began first while both were asleep, the removal took three hours and putting it into Lorin took nearly six. The surgery was a success, and just days later Kilburg said he was feeling great. His daughter, Jane Heiar of Manchester, plans to be back at her teaching job in just a few more days.
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