Married lawyers share uncommon bond after donating kidneys to siblings

Craig and Judy Blinderman hope their family's experience encourages more Floridians to consider living organ donation

About 90,000 Americans need a kidney transplant, something healthy people rarely consider. Due to a shortage, 12 people die on a waiting list every day National Kidney Foundation figures show.

Miami attorneys Judy and Craig Blinderman, who have been married for 26 years, have confronted that reality twice, when Craig’s late brother, Richard Blinderman, and Judy’s sister, Ana Saruski – both attorneys – suffered renal failure.

Neither Judy nor Craig hesitated to donate a kidney to an older sibling, and they’re hoping their unusual story convinces more Florida Bar members to consider organ donation.

“We want to raise awareness about living organ donation because a lot of people don’t know they can do it, and a lot of people are afraid about the what-ifs,” Judy says.

“How many lawyers are you going to meet who are married who have both given a kidney to other lawyers?” Craig adds.

The rewards far outweigh any risks, the couple assures.

For stepping up to the plate in 1993, Craig received decades of companionship with a cherished older brother he otherwise wouldn’t have had.

“He was the first in the family to become an attorney,” Craig says. “I joined the Bar because I looked up to him.”

Richard was an insulin-dependent diabetic since childhood and died of kidney failure in 2017 at age 63. But he survived far longer than doctors predicted at the time of the transplant, Craig says.

Back in the early 1990s, Craig’s kidney donation required opening his abdomen and breaking ribs. He spent six days in the hospital in considerable pain, followed by a lengthy recovery, but he would do it again in a heartbeat.

“You could have hung me up by my thumbs in a North Korean prison, nothing was going to stop me from going through with this,” Craig says.

Craig is in private practice now, but at the time, he was an assistant state attorney. Fellow prosecutors donated sick time so Craig wouldn’t miss a paycheck, and supervisors transferred him to a division with fewer trials while he regained his strength.

Long recovered, he lives a normal life, with only a few minor adjustments. He gave up Taekwando to avoid the risk of a traumatic kidney injury.

“I’ve been living with this for 33 years, and I’ve never had any issues,” he says. “There are people out there living with one kidney and they don’t even know it until they get an ultrasound.”

Judy, the most recent donor, had a far different experience, thanks to advances in transplant surgery techniques.

Her sister, Ana, discovered she had PKD, or polycystic kidney disease, during a pregnancy ultrasound. The past four years were considerably painful as the cysts engulfed her kidneys. She also suffered liver complications, Judy says.

“The average kidney is the size of the fist, and her kidneys were each the size of a loaf of bread,” Judy says.

When a nephrologist saw that Ana’s eGFR, or “estimated glomerular filtration rate,” dropped to 19, (a normal rate is 90 or higher) a transplant became necessary.

Receiving Judy’s healthy kidney in April made a dramatic difference, Judy says.

“Ana is doing amazing, she doesn’t even look like the same person anymore,” Judy says. “I didn’t remember that my sister had an oval face.”

Judy’s recovery was also remarkable.

Seven weeks after a laparoscopic procedure at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Judy is back at her insurance litigation practice, and back at her home exercise routine, including spin classes, a Peloton, and a treadmill, although she’s toned down the weights for now.

Two or three afternoons a week, Judy gets bouts of fatigue as her kidney adjusts to doing the work of two.

Hoping to keep it light, Judy wore a “Spare Parts” sweatshirt to the hospital the day of the operation. She was on her way home in 24 hours.

“It was on a Thursday, and I was back on my computer on Monday,” she said. “A lot of people think you will be laid up for six weeks or something, and that’s just not the case.”

Judy declined the hydrocodone she was prescribed for post-operative pain, saying she only felt some initial “discomfort.”

Toradol, a powerful anti-inflammatory, did the trick, but it’s the last time Judy will ever take it. She’s been advised to avoid Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, or N-SAIDS, because they’re hard on the kidneys.

“I have to stay very well hydrated to protect my kidney, but I’m always walking around with an emotional support water bottle, so it isn’t an issue to me.”

Judy couldn’t avoid the rigorous testing required of all donors.

“They put me through basically every test in the book, a chest X-ray, an abdominal CT with contrast, an EKG, an echo cardiogram, a nuclear stress test, a colonoscopy, a pelvic CT, a 24-hour urine collection test,” she said. “I walked around with a 24-hour blood pressure monitor.”

Confirming that she was an ideal match for her sister, “was like winning the lottery,” Judy says.

Knowing that her husband survived a kidney donation without complications or compromise made the decision to donate even easier, Judy acknowledges.

Now they share a bond few married couples can claim, Judy says.

“They took my left kidney, and they took Craig’s right kidney, so together, we make a whole person.”