Richard L. “Rick” Oppelt has been pastor of Oak Tree Church in Edison, N.J., for more than 12 years, so he and his parishioners share a depth of knowledge and caring for each other.
However, when Oppelt heard that church member Carol Trapp, a type one diabetic for most of her life, needed a kidney transplant, his knowledge and caring faced a real test.
He already knew they shared the same blood type: O positive. While that is a good blood type for blood donations, it is not “universal” for organ recipients, Oppelt said. He decided to go through the testing to see if he was an organ donor match while others–family, donor banks–were tested and checked as well. Members of Mrs. Trapp’s family did not match, but Rick Oppelt did.
While not simple, the decision seemed clear cut, he said. Research assured him that persons could live normally with one kidney. If a kidney donor in subsequent years needs a kidney, he or she is placed at the top of transplant waiting lists, he found. And Mrs. Trapp, with a less than 15 percent kidney function, faced an average five-year wait in New Jersey for a donor kidney, during which time she would be on dialysis.
“Carol is very special to me,” Oppelt told the Edison-Metuchen Sentinel* in an article the newspaper did on the kidney donation. “I know what diabetes has done to her system. This is a chance to help her overcome some of that.” Mrs. Trapp told the Sentinel, “I couldn’t have gotten (the kidney) from a better person, since he wants to save my body and soul anyway.”
The Oppelt family, and the Oak Tree church family all had to work through the donor decision and its implications.
“The reaction was mixed,” Oppelt said. His daughter, Sarah, a biology major, warmed to the idea after an initial cool reaction. His wife, Joanne, responded enthusiastically at first and then voiced understandable concerns. But his family, including also daughter, Michelle, and son, Tim, stood by him and his decision. “He walks what he preaches,” Joanne says of her husband.
When Oppelt announced his decision from the pulpit, “there was a collective gasp,” he said. “Members were incredulous.” As parishioners heard the reasons why his donor qualifications were unique, the response was supportive.
One of Oppelt’s ministerial colleagues said the donation takes “pastoral care” to a whole new level, the pastor told the Sentinel.
The transplant surgery on August 29 went well. Both Rick Oppelt and Carol Trapp are now at home. He resumed pulpit duties on Sept. 24; his local colleagues provided pulpit and pastoral care as needed during his recuperation. At her check two weeks after surgery, Mrs. Trapp’s kidney function was up to 75 percent.
The first three months after surgery are critical. She will continue to recover and her transplant will be closely monitored.
With local newspaper coverage and the ubiquitous blogosphere, the New Jersey pastor has felt uncomfortable with the attention, the accolades.
“I look at it as responding to someone who has a need,” he told the Sentinel. “Without over-spiritualizing it, it is hard to identify any one kind of thing to be the hand of God or the will of God. But I have to believe that this is providential, that this is meant to be.”
*The article, “Pastor to donate kidney to ailing church member” by Jay Bodas appeared in the August 30 edition of the Edison-Metuchen Sentinel; used through the courtesy of the Sentinel.
