A frequent flyer needed a kidney transplant to live. This Delta employee gave him one
Bruce Gamble traveling on one of his many flights for work. He calls himself “semi-retired
By Alexandra Skores, CNN
(CNN) — Bruce Gamble has been flying out of Birmingham, Alabama, since the late 1980s for his job as a consultant for car dealerships. Along the way, he got to know Delta Air Lines employees at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport pretty well, making a point of greeting the customer service agents during his almost weekly travels.
Jill Hickey, a part-time Delta agent who’s been with the airline for four years, got used to seeing Gamble stop by the customer service counter to get a water after his flights. Little did either of them know those encounters would save his life.
Hickey, 57, said she believes she crossed paths with Gamble for a reason.
“I knew Bruce had been having some health concerns, but I didn’t know the extent, how serious it was, and what it was that he needed,” Hickey said.
In November 2022, Gamble, now 74, discovered he needed a kidney transplant. Gamble has been a Type 2 diabetic since 2002, and an internist noticed his kidney function was declining. He was told his blood type had a three-to-five-year waiting list for a kidney from a deceased donor. By then, he would be 75 to 78 years old, ruling out surgery. He was left with no option but to be “an advocate” for himself, he said.
“It really started when somebody would say, ‘How are you doing today, Bruce?’ and I said, ‘I’m doing fine, except I just need to find a kidney donor,’” he told CNN.
That revelation “opened the whole conversation up” about what donating an organ entailed, he said, including compatibility testing and making sure the donor is healthy. He started talking to people about his search for a kidney during his trips to the airport and just about anywhere else he went.
The wait Gamble faced is average at most centers for a kidney transplant from a deceased donor, but in some parts of the country, it can be even longer than five years.
Waiting times depend on several things, including the length of time a patient has been on dialysis or on the transplant waitlist; blood type; where the patient lives; and their antibody levels, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
But a kidney transplant from a living donor can be faster.
‘I’m here for a purpose’
One evening, some Delta employees were talking about ways to help Gamble, whom they had all met at one time or another through his trips in Birmingham. Hickey overheard her coworkers’ conversation.
She and a coworker decided together that they would get tested.
When she brought the idea to her family, her husband and kids questioned her a lot. She’s a mother of two daughters, both in their late 20s, and one of her daughters was in tears out of fear of what could happen in surgery. But her family ultimately understood why she wanted to help.
Hickey works as an elementary school teacher for gifted children during the day. Throughout her career in education, Hickey has met students who needed organ donations. Recalling those moments in her life, she said, made her want to help someone who might be in that same situation.
If healthy and able, Hickey was going to donate.
“I was stunned, beside myself,” Gamble said when he learned of Hickey’s intention. He told his wife of 51 years that a donor had emerged from all the time he’d spent spreading the word.
Kidneys transplanted from a living donor are more likely to start working right away and may last longer than those from a deceased donor. Kidneys from living donors last an average of about 15 to 20 years, according to the National Kidney Foundation, compared with 7 to 10 years for those from deceased donors.
A person can live a full life with one kidney but must protect the remaining organs by staying as healthy as possible, the foundation says.
Over two years, Gamble had 10 other people volunteer to be tested, but all were disqualified for varying reasons — then came Hickey, the 11th person to be tested.
Not everyone who wants to donate is able to give, but the test found that Hickey and Gamble were fully compatible.
“When Jill called me and said she was an exact match, I can’t tell you – I was just speechless at that point,” Gamble said. “But here we are. God blessed me with Jill at this point in my life. She’s extending my life, and I’ve told her that many times.”
Hickey’s decision felt especially fateful after she was gifted a daily devotion book from a friend of Bruce’s. She opened the page to the date of the surgery, and it read, “Let Me lead you step by step through this day. If your primary focus is on Me, you can walk along perilous paths without being afraid.”
“It really solidified my faith that everything is going to be all right, that I’m here for a purpose,” Hickey said. “Our paths crossed at the right time for a reason.”
A remarkable gift
Gamble’s desperate search for a donor isn’t unusual. There are not nearly enough organs to fill kidney transplant needs.
About 90,000 people are on the kidney transplant waitlist, according to data from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration cited by the National Kidney Foundation. In 2023, about 27,000 people received a kidney transplant — and roughly 6,300 of those were from living donors.
Gamble and Hickey underwent surgeries in December 2024 in Birmingham. During the procedure, doctors discovered issues with the blood vessels around Hickey’s kidney that could have caused more health problems. The result was a longer surgery, but one that still went smoothly.
Months after the surgery, Hickey, Gamble and their spouses went on a trip to California. Gamble has collected animation art for over 35 years. On their trip, Hickey bought artwork of Marvin the Martian, which Gamble hopes will “get her hooked” on the hobby.
Hickey said that Gamble’s love for animation art sparked creative ideas that will apply to her teaching job. The two couples enjoyed spending time together and they say it won’t be their last vacation as a group.
Donation doesn’t change life expectancy for donors. In fact, some studies, according to the National Kidney Foundation, have shown living donors live longer than the average person because only the healthiest people are accepted for kidney donation.
In some ways, life has gone back to the way things were before. Hickey is teaching gifted children full-time during the school year, and she works for Delta as a customer service agent in the evenings. Gamble travels on occasion. He’s “semi-retired” but continues to do some training at car dealerships.
In one important way, however, things are forever changed.
“We were strangers at first, but we’re more like family now,” Hickey said.
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