Marine goes under the knife to give brother another lease on life


By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, February 18, 2008

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION FUTENMA, Okinawa — He had two of them, so when his older brother needed one, 1st Lt. Austin Bonner didn’t have to think twice about giving up a kidney.

The Marine Air Support Squadron 2 air traffic officer knew he would donate the organ when he tested as a match for his brother in 2000.

Bonner’s brother, Cameron, 31, was diagnosed with an acute type of lupus about 13 years ago.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which a person’s immune system attacks itself because it cannot distinguish between its own body and foreign cells, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. The disease affects “the skin, joints, heart, lungs, blood, kidneys and brain,” according to the foundation Web site.

Bonner, 30, from Pierce, Idaho, said that of his 13 siblings, Cameron was the one he was closest to growing up because they were only a year apart in age.

He remembered Cameron was popular in high school, and “all the girls liked him.”

Bonner described his brother as a talented and outgoing musician who was studying music in college before the disease forced him to drop out in his senior year. Lupus attacked Cameron’s joints, but the disease was particularly hard on his kidneys, Bonner said.

The kidneys are responsible for filtering waste and excess fluid from the blood and expelling them from the body through urine, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Cameron’s first kidney failure occurred in 2000, and six of the Bonner siblings were tested to see if any matched as a possible kidney donor for him. Only Austin Bonner and another older brother, Marty, tested as 100 percent matches.

At the time, Austin Bonner was an enlisted machine gunner stationed in Hawaii. Marty, a preacher who lived in Washington, was closer so they decided he would donate a kidney.

That donation gave Cameron “a new lease on life,” Austin Bonner said, adding that his brother became more involved in his music and joined a nonprofit group that ministers Christianity through music.

Things were changing in Austin Bonner’s life, too. He was accepted to a Marine commissioning program, attended the University of Idaho and was commissioned a lieutenant.

Then lupus flare-ups in 2005 attacked Cameron’s donated kidney. He experienced a second kidney failure.

The new lieutenant knew he was going to be the donor this time. The surgeries were set for October 2006, but the month before, Cameron developed a bacterial infection that caused a stroke.

Doctors put the operations on hold until Cameron received “a clean bill of health with no bacteria in his body,” Austin Bonner said.

They got the go-ahead late in 2007, and on Dec. 15, the Bonner brothers went under the knife.

Austin Bonner’s wife was concerned, and his 7-year-old son also was sensitive about the procedure, remembering a great-grandmother’s recent death after being hospitalized.

Bonner admits he had some concerns too.

“I have 12 years in, and I was doing something that might jeopardize my retirement,” he said.

However, he said, his command researched the issue and told him as long as he could perform his job and pass the Marine Corps physical-fitness requirements, he could remain a Marine.

Bonner said he’d never been hospitalized, and as a Marine he sometimes feels indestructible. And then he compared that to what his brother had gone through.

“He’s gone though a lot and his quality of life is really poor,” he said.

After surgery and recovery, it was kind of weird, Bonner said.

“I remember coming home and thinking I gave up a kidney. I’m one kidney short,” he recounted.

But if he had to do it all over again, he said, he would.

Ellie