Briones OK after surgery

Marcelo Briones, a Malden man whose health problems became public after he saved a stranger's life two years ago, was recovering at the Tufts-New England Medical Center last week after undergoing a six-hour kidney transplant surgery.

The operation was the culmination of a 17-month search for a suitable donor and was performed seven months after another potential donor was ruled out two weeks before the scheduled surgery. On Tuesday, Briones' new wife, Astrid, gave him one of her kidneys. The couple was doing well Thursday afternoon, Briones said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed.

''The new kidney is working, and, if all goes well, we will be home by Monday," said Briones, who hopes the publicity he has received will help focus attention on the need for organ donors and on kidney disease in general.

''I want to say thank you to my wife, who saved my life, and everyone who has helped us through this," Briones added. ''Hopefully, everything will come out the way we want."

Briones's plight became public in May 2004 after he saved Carol Gamble's life by performing the Heimlich maneuver during a business luncheon at the Best Western Lord Wakefield Hotel, where he works. Gamble, who lives in Newburyport, was dining with fellow members of the Wakefield Rotary Club when she started to choke on a piece of steak and Briones rushed to her aid.

Briones, 40, who for years had suffered with severe high blood pressure, had been told earlier that year that his blood levels were toxic and that his kidneys were in rapid decline. He had started undergoing dialysis treatments three times a week while struggling to juggle a full-time job as a banquet captain at the Lord Wakefield and a part-time position as a delivery driver for the Bella Luna Restaurant in Jamaica Plain.

Briones told Gamble about his health problems when he learned that she worked at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford, the hospital where he was going for treatment.

Soon after, Gamble started organizing fund-raising events on his behalf, which generated publicity about Briones's dilemma. Gamble -- systems director of laboratory services for Hallmark Health, which operates Lawrence Memorial and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital in Melrose -- also rallied the support of her employer, the Wakefield Rotary Club, and the regional office of the National Kidney Foundation.

Briones was added to the transplant list in August 2004 and was told it could take more than five years to find a donor.

But, as a result of the local media attention, Briones found a potential donor within months: His boss.

Someone showed Carol Downs, owner of Bella Luna, a newspaper article detailing Briones's need for a kidney. She shares his O-positive blood type and volunteered to donate one of her kidneys.

Downs passed all the initial screenings. Then, in June, just two weeks before the surgery was scheduled to take place, Downs was disqualified because of a previously unknown problem with her blood vessels.

Distraught, Briones tried to maintain a positive outlook and resumed his search for a suitable donor. Luckily, he didn't have far to look. His girlfriend, whom he married in November, insisted on giving Briones one of her kidneys, an offer he had previously refused, in part because Astrid was a single mother and the surgery involves some risk.

Soon after the couple came out of surgery Tuesday, Gamble went to the hospital to lend them support.

''I've been told he's doing OK, and, if all goes well, he could be discharged as early as Monday," she said.

''The thing that is so remarkable about this is the love story between the two of them," Gamble said. ''They're newlyweds, and yet they've already been through so much together."

For more information on becoming an organ donor, visit the National Kidney Foundation website at www.kidneyhealth.org/altruisticdonation.htm Brenda J. Buote may be reached at bbuote@globe.com.