TROPHY CLUB, Texas — Several years ago, realizing that several members of his church congregation were suffering from kidney problems and likely in need of an eventual transplant, Chas Morse says he decided to get tested so that he could perhaps give one of his kidneys to one of those friends.
"And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren," he said reading passages from 1 John in his Bible. "So John is telling us that we should be cognizant of the needs around us."
But the Trophy Club resident and his family were dealing with very pressing needs of their own. His wife Patti was suffering from ovarian cancer. She died in May of 2022.
But by December of 2023, he felt the need again to help someone else.
"Of course," he said when asked if his decision now was in honor of his late wife. "I had Patti in mind, she was stuck with me for 42 years," he said with a smile.
So, Chas Morse contacted Texas Health Resources in Fort Worth and asked if he could still be a donor: not to anyone in particular, but to anyone who might need it.
"I applaud these kinds of people and I know there are a lot of people out there who want to do good," said Texas Health Surgical Specialists transplant surgeon Dr. Eric Siskind.
But for Dr. Siskind, Chas had one big question. Yes, he is a man of faith, but, technically, an "old" man of faith.
"I was very apprehensive just about my age," Morse said. "Are 67-year-old kidneys usable," he asked with a laugh.
In his case, they definitely were usable. This past December, after a battery of tests to determine that the 67-year-old runner and avid cyclist was in excellent health, Dr. Siskind and his surgical team removed one of Chas Morse's kidneys and performed a successful transplant for a patient in an adjoining operating room. To date, that person is still someone Morse knows very little about and hasn't yet met.
"I would emphasize the fact that you don't owe me anything back," he said of the person he hopes to eventually meet. "That this was something that this was the right thing to do."
Chas Morse is considered an altruistic donor: someone with no personal connection to the recipient. And, while compared to related living donors or non-related living donors who offer a transplant to spouses or friends, the fraction of altruistic donors is relatively small. But they are desperately needed. While more than 25,000 kidney transplants were performed for the first time in the United States in 2022, more than 4,000 people die each year while on kidney transplant waiting lists.
"You have other people who want to be a hero. And that may sound trite. This is an incredible way to be a hero," said Dr. Siskind. "The example of Chas can kind of tell other people that, if you're younger even if you're older, that if it's something that you're interested in let us know we'd be happy to help you and treat you like the hero that you are."
Dr. Siskind says the oldest kidney donor hero he's worked with so far was 73.
As for Chas Morse, several weeks after surgery he was healthy enough to go on a church mission trip to Papua New Guinea: a four-week trip part of his continuing desire to give back.
"And the Bible is really emphatic about his love for us and then how do we show our love for our brothers and sisters," he said.
A brother or sister he hopes to meet someday. And you can bet Patti will be part of the story he tells them too.
"Patti was in my mind when I was thinking about this. The Lord has blessed me with a fantastic marriage. Now me giving another person an opportunity to have that same elongated experience," he said.
You can find more information on the Texas Health Resources transplant program here.