Facebook kidney buddies recovering, a month after transplant

Nick Etten is inching closer to getting back to work full time and to his normal routine.

Five weeks ago, Etten's story circled the globe when the Cedar Rapids man gave up a kidney after reading a Facebook post from a friend.

“It got kind of a little nutty,” Etten said Monday from the couch of John Burge. Burge is now walking around with a new kidney - Etten's former left kidney.

The reason the story filled newspaper space in Great Britain, Norway, Russia, Germany and Japan is because it started with a Sept. 18 Facebook post by Matthew Burge. He put out a call for someone to help his father, John Burge, who suffered from polycystic kidney disease. Time was running out. John Burge had already been on the kidney donor list for years.

But within an hour of Burge's request, Etten wrote that he would like to help. Etten had never met his friend's father before agreeing to see if his kidney would be a match.

On Dec. 17 at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Etten lost a kidney and John Burge gained one.

“It was a little bit overwhelming,” Burge admitted Monday during the first face-to-face meeting between donor and recipient since the surgery.

Now both men are working to get back to what a normal life should be.

Burge, who says he loves to cycle, can't do it right now. The doctors are telling him to take it easy - but not too easy.

“All I'm limited to doing is just walking,” he said. “Sometimes I want to push myself faster than what the doctors want me to.”

Burge plans to be back working full time within two weeks.

Etten said his plan to stay healthy is similar to Burge's: “Don't get fat!” He laughed as he admitted he needs to keep off the couch.

“My daily lifestyle hasn't changed,” he said, adding that the surgery required four cuts and his body is recovering a little bit more each day.

As their health continues to get stronger, both men are also noticing the attention they have garnered is starting to temper as well.

“The amount of people on Facebook got a little overwhelming,” Etten said. In the days after the surgery, he said, he was overwhelmed with messages from people who wanted to become his Facebook friend.

“I'm still at a loss for how to thank Nick,” Burge said. “I can't believe what it's done for me.”

-- Chris Earl, KCRG-TV9