Wendy Freeman: A Patient's Perspective on Omnigraf

  Wendy Freeman lives in the Chicago suburbs, and she shared her kidney transplant story at the OTS meeting on April 1.    She was diagnosed with lupus when she was 21, and she eventually received 2 kidney transplants. 

Wendy received her first kidney transplant in 2016.  This kidney was from a living donor, and her son was the donor.  However, 4 days after the transplant the kidney failed because of a blood clotting problem.   After many tests Wendy was diagnosed with a clotting disorder, and she started taking blood thinners. 

Wendy received her second kidney transplant in 2018 from a deceased donor.  This transplant was successful, and the kidney was working well.  However, because of her past complications the transplant team decided to avoid doing a biopsy on Wendy.   Because of this decision the transplant team suggested that Wendy would be a good candidate for the TruGraf test (precursor for the OmniGraf test).   

Starting at 6 months after her kidney transplant Wendy took first the TruGraf test and then the OmniGraf test to check for rejection.  The doctors explained that if either the TruGraf test or the OmniGraf test showed a problem they would need to perform a biopsy to check for any rejection.  In the past 4 years since her transplant Wendy has only needed 1 biopsy, and she has received 6 TruGraf tests and 1 OmniGraf test.

Wendy stressed to all of us that she is very happy that she is able to receive just a blood test to check for rejection instead of a biopsy.   Because of her blood clotting problem, it takes her much longer to recover from any procedure, including a biopsy.   She does not want to take any risk at all that could hurt her transplanted kidney.   Wendy Freeman has a new lease on life because of her kidney transplant, and she has the added security that she is able to continue to stay healthy with the use of the OmniGraf blood test.