by Tim Troglen | Reporter

Hudson -- For six years a Navy veteran waited, praying for a call to let him know a kidney had been found to replace the one dying in his body.

However,
for most of that time, unbeknownst to Doug Cabarle, 43, he was off the donor list due to a governmental snafu.

Placed back on the list in March, Cabarle got the call April 17 that a kidney was found.

"I was in shock," he said in an email from his hospital bed April 20.

Cabarle left that day for the Pittsburgh Veteran's Administration Hospital, where he received the kidney April 18. He will remain in the hospital for several more weeks recovering.

Just over a week after the transplant, Cabarle is "finally beginning to feel normal," he said, looking forward to getting home.

"I'll still have some limitations, but it's better than dialysis," Cabarle said. "For example, I'll be able to go back to work and travel."

Cabarle will also be able to get back to his volunteer work with the U.S. Naval Sea Cadets and resume duties as a Blue and Gold officer for the U.S. Naval Academy.

Prior to the transplant, Cabarle had been spending four hours a day, three days a week, for six years, hooked up to tubes as he went through the dialysis.

In 1996, while stationed at the Pentagon, Cabarle was home with his then 4-year-old daughter, Diana.

"I blacked out and woke up in an ambulance going to Bethesda Naval Hospital," Cabarle said. "My wife told me how Diana was on top of me trying to figure out why daddy was laying on the kitchen floor."

After a series of tests, doctors determined Cabarle had kidney disease.

"I was medically retired within two weeks," Cabarle said. "And I was just accepted into an officer program. I was crushed."

Six years ago, the disease progressed to the point that Cabarle needed dialysis and a transplant.

Without the transplant, Cabarle would have died, he said.

"Dialysis is not a cure and neither is a transplant," Cabarle said. "They are both treatment options. The transplant allows greater freedom than dialysis, an exhausting process I would not wish on anyone."

Cabarle's kidney had ceased to filter impurities from his body, he said.

"I often used to tell the dialysis staff, family and friends that I was going to die on the dialysis machine," Cabarle said. "I've seen it too many times. I've made more friends that are now in the grave yard because of this devastating disease."

Doctors are not sure what caused the focal segmental schlorososis, which caused his kidney to fail, Cabarle said.

After rehabilitation and his eventual discharge, Cabarle said he will need to be careful "because my immune system is suppressed for the rest of my life."

Cabarle, who has lived in Hudson for 10 years, was a federal information specialist prior to beginning dialysis treatments. Doctors are unsure what caused the retired third class petty officer's kidney to fail, Cabarle said. Some speculation is that perhaps contaminants from oil fires during the first Gulf War, where he served in 1991, may have been a contributing factor, or a variety of medications.

While waiting for the transplant, there were times when Cabarle wondered if he would get the needed kidney, especially after the Navy dropped him from the transplant list without his knowledge.

"Somehow I was dropped off the waiting list and I literally went crazy," Cabarle said.

However, after radio and TV interviews and after several friends took up his cause, he was placed back on the list. One friend even offered to give Cabarle a kidney.

"I just tried to live my life the best I could," Cabarle said.

One thing that helped Cabarle through those times was his family -- his wife, Decey, daughter, Diana, and parents, Felix and Alma Cabarle.

Cabarle said he never let his daughter, who will graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School in May, give up.

She now returns the favor, Cabarle said.

"She motivates the hell out of me," he added.

Diana said she was too young to really understand what her dad was going through during his early prognosis.

"It wasn't until I was 15 or 16 that I saw him on dialysis for the first time," said Diana, who plans to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

She was at class when she was told about the available kidney for her dad.

"I had mixed emotions," Diana said. "I was like freaking out. But I'm very happy, this means more family vacations."

Diana will graduate in May, the same day Cabarle is scheduled to be released, so he will miss her graduation.

However, Diana is taking it all in stride.

"I consider it my getting home present," she said.

Diana has been getting constant updates on her dad and was thrilled at the show of support he received, she said.

The kidney Cabarle received was from a 10-year-old donor from Pittsburgh, he said. Other than that, Cabarle knows little of the boy who gave him his life back.

"Later in this process I will have the opportunity to write the parents a letter and they could get in touch with me if they choose," Cabarle said. "I want to tell the parents he lives in me and I will not waste this second chance on life.

"I want them to know I am a Navy veteran and will still uphold the core values of honor, courage and commitment."

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