DENVER — Hospital check in time was early. The halls were still quiet at AdventHealth Porter in Denver.
“I didn’t sleep real well last night,” Mark McIntosh said from his hospital bed. “I’m just ready. It’s showtime, right? Let’s go!”
That morning – June 12, 2024 – was the end of one journey for McIntosh, and the beginning of a new one. It was the first day of his new life, with a new kidney.
For more than a year, McIntosh has battled a disease, amyloidosis, that led to several health issues – including kidney failure. The former 9NEWS employee, longtime journalist and athlete saw his life turn upside down as he endured chemotherapy, dialysis treatment, even at-home peritoneal dialysis. He began the search for a new kidney, and his own experience led him to a bigger mission.
Drive For Five was born, an effort to recruit healthy, older adults to be living-donors. Their motto is “share your spare.”
This summer, McIntosh found himself on the receiving end of a gift: an anonymous donor was willing to share her spare.
“In this world where we hear a lot of bad news, there’s a lot of good going on,” he said. “Here’s a perfect example of, some person out there said, ‘Ok, what I have in abundance can be shared with somebody else to change their life forever?’ And I’ll just be forever grateful.”
“I have so much respect for Mark because he will fight for people. He wants to help people in the community. So, he was advocating not just for himself,” McIntosh’s wife, Kathy Gans, said. “But thank goodness for him. Because of his advocacy and educating himself, we may not have ended up at Porter and we may not have ended up with this kidney. I’m just really proud of him.”
Dr. Hunter Moore, Transplant Surgeon at Porter, performed the surgery on McIntosh that morning. He said receiving a living donor kidney is a patient’s best-case scenario.
“For Mark to be able to get this, have a match, save time, and not go on the waitlist for a long time… Plus with a living donor, the donors have been tested pretty extensively. So, we know the kidney is going to work really well.”
These kinds of surgeries completely change a patient’s life.
“It’s a really cool job, kind of an honor to be able to do that – take [a kidney dialysis patient] whose hooked up to a machine and get them fixed the next day. Or if it’s a liver transplant recipient, where there is no machine to fix them, to take them and save their lives essentially,” Moore said. “Seeing Mark in a couple months will be a total payoff.”
By early afternoon, McIntosh was out of surgery and recovering in the ICU with a new, working kidney. Gans finally let herself exhale.
“I really couldn’t fathom that we would be here,” she said. “I thought it would be several more years before he would be healthy enough to even be considered for a kidney. Then for a kidney to come along so quickly, was really… miraculous.”
Weeks later, McIntosh’s recovery continues at home.
His health is pretty good and improving every day.
He is attending events to advocate for donor awareness.
And he’s living the life he remembers before his illness – light travel, golf with friends, spin classes. It's the freedom of no longer being tied to machines.
“This journey has been very difficult. I’ve had a lot of surgeries, been poked numerous times and all that kind of stuff. Does give you a great appreciation for the blessings of life,” he said. “Thanks to an incredible person who just shared their spare.”