A Double Kidney Transplant Puts Avid Traveler Phyllis Cucchiani in First Gear

In 2024, when Phyllis Cucchiani, 72, a retired pastor and international banker, was told she was compatible with two kidneys available for transplant, she was ready for a second chance. Diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2005, she had intentionally avoided dialysis for almost 20 years. Phyllis was prepping for dinner when she got the call. 

“The team had prepared me for that moment, but nothing can describe the surprise and elation that washed over me,” she says, as she cried “uncontrollable” tears. “I contacted my support person, packed my things and put my salmon back in the freezer.” 

About 4½ hours after she entered the operating room, she had two new kidneys, courtesy of a deceased donor and George Rofaiel, MD, Chief of Transplant Surgery with Lehigh Valley Institute for Surgical Excellence, part of Jefferson Health. “We are one of only a couple of centers nationwide that receive and transplant kidneys from pediatric donors,” he says.

At the start of her journey, when she was living in Europe in the 1980s, Phyllis was prescribed medication for depression that is linked to kidney disease. During that same time, she was treated for breast cancer with chemotherapy and developed high blood pressure. Adding to her challenges – and to additional risks for chronic kidney disease (CKD) – her then-clinician switched her depression medication. The newly prescribed one has an association with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, which she also developed. 

“Living with CKD was challenging to say the least,” Phyllis says, who became a patient of Dr. Rofaiel and LVHN’s transplant program team. “It meant monthly early-morning blood work, annual prodding, and adherence to a strict diet and hydration schedule. But I was committed to not taking dialysis and tried everything to avoid it.”  

The ups and downs continued with alternating weight gain, bypass surgery for a heart issue and varying glomerular filtration rates. This is the measurement of how well the kidneys are filtering the blood by removing waste and extra water (to make urine). Any progress was short-lived and Phyllis found herself on the transplant list. 

“Once [a patient] is in stage 4 kidney disease, they are better off on a transplant list than waiting for dialysis,” Dr. Rofaiel says. 

As her health deteriorated, Phyllis was headed for kidney failure in the summer of 2024. Her nightly prayers turned to “asking for minimum pain and extension of life.” Two short months later, she got the phone call while making her salmon dinner.

Within 24 hours after the kidneys became available, the transplant team was conducting its complex yet delicate surgery. More than 20 clinicians filled the operating room, and they transplanted Phyllis’ two new kidneys as a singular unit. “These cases are inherently challenging; however, Phyllis was never on dialysis before her transplant, which afforded her the best outcome possible,” Dr. Rofaiel says. 

After a successful surgery and time for recovery, Phyllis is in awe of her new opportunity and how she arrived there.

“This is not about me,” she says. “Someone died in the process of giving me renewed life. I will never know her name or how she came to be there that night. But I made a promise to live a life that will bring honor to her gift. I owe her the best her kidneys can sustain.”

These days, Phyllis says her health has “improved remarkably” – enough to resume her travel plans. She describes having more energy and eating a more balanced diet. “And because I have more energy, I am exercising more, smiling more and giving more,” she says.