Live Oak woman will give a kidney to save her husband’s life

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Bridgette, Alvin and Alannah McQuay at their home in Live Oak. - Photo: Misty A. Ward

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February 10, 2012

Misty Ward Suwannee Democrat The Suwannee Democrat Fri Feb 10, 2012, 05:28 PM EST

Live Oak — When a Live Oak man was given the news that he had a rare kidney disease that would require dialysis twice a week and could possibly need a transplant, his wife made the decision that she would donate her kidney to her husband.

Bridgette McQuay decided from the beginning that if it ever got to the point where her husband, Alvin McQuay, needed a kidney transplant, that she would be the first one checked to see if she’d be a candidate.

“This is the plan of action. I plan to be evaluated and I just pray to God that I’m a match. We’re not going to think about what happens if I am not a match, so we’re just going to say that I’m a match and that’s it,” Bridgette McQuay said.

After going through a battery of testing to make sure she was healthy and was able to go through the procedure, the doctors told her she was in fact a match.

He said it was a blessing from God that Bridgette McQuay, his wife of six years, was a match. The two met at their church choir.

“I tell my church that the Lord joined us together because I prayed for a good wife and he joined us together,” Alvin McQuay said. “When I got sick she’s laying up there and got my kidney on the other side asleep. The Lord gave me more time at my age.”

He went on to explain that there are people on the kidney transplant list for five years and they still do not have a donor.

Alvin McQuay said he was otherwise healthy and then within six months he started to swell up. He said his legs were so swollen that fluid leaked from his skin. He and his wife knew something was not right. It turned out that he had a rare kidney disease that may have been hereditary.

“I would tell people that are afraid to go on dialysis not to be afraid. It’s a help to you. When you go through and filter your blood, you feel like a new person again. Without that blood being filtered you feel down, you be stressed out. It’s just rough. You can’t rest at night. By them doing it, it’s like the Lord giving you a second chance,” Alvin McQuay said.

Keeping a positive attitude and staying busy is what helps the McQuay’s. Alvin, Bridgette and Alannah, their youngest daughter, like to head to the drag race track in south Georgia. Alvin McQuay said that his friends will call him up and make him get out of the house to go drag racing, which is a passion for him. He is currently working on his 1980 Rally Sports Camaro with a 454 block engine.

“If you can put your mind to doing something positive, it will come out positive. If you think of negative stuff it ain’t going to come out right,” Alvin McQuay said.

The couple have the transplant scheduled for Feb. 22. Once out of the surgery, Bridgette McQuay will be recovering for about eight weeks. Alvin McQuay’s recovery will consist of two check-ups a week for six weeks, and then taper off they said.

“I am going into surgery in the hands of the Lord. Because if he done led me to it, I know he’ll bring me through it,” Alvin McQuay said. “I’m not scared, I’m just ready.”

There will be a benefit for the Alvin McQuay at 3 p.m., on Feb. 12, at African Missionary Baptist church.

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