Rev. David Sims and his wife Velma have been married for four years, and have been a couple for a decade, but they still behave very much like newlyweds. They have five daughters between them, but there are no “step-children” in their family.
“They are all ours,” Rev. Sims said.
“I love my husband and I am so grateful the Lord placed him in my life,” Mrs. Sims said. So it’s no surprise that she would do anything for him – including giving up one of her kidneys to help make him well.
Rev. Sims, who is in his eighth year as pastor at Colbert Grove Baptist Church, suffers from kidney failure and has been on dialysis in one form or another for the past seven years. He also has high blood pressure and diabetes, and these diseases, plus kidney failure, run in his family. He currently has a sister and maternal aunt who are also in kidney failure, and a grandmother died of the disease. These days Sims goes for five-and-a-half hour hemo-dialysis treatments three times a week in Athens. “They’re exhausting,” Sims said of the treatments, but he never goes alone.
“I have not been to one doctor’s appointment by myself,” he said, smiling at his wife. “She’s right there with me, all the way.” His wife has become so involved in his treatments and care that he jokingly says his doctors don’t even talk to him anymore – they do their talking to her.
Recently, doctors have encouraged them to seek a kidney transplant.
And of course Sims didn’t have far to look for a donor, if his wife is a match. She’s ready and willing to give him one of her kidneys. And even if she’s not a match, the couple plans to participate in a relatively new kidney exchange program at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.
The couple cited a story on Fox 5 News in Atlanta recently which focused on six people who were all involved in a rare six-way kidney exchange earlier this year that required all the donors to donate a kidney, though not directly to their loved one.
So if Mrs. Sims passes the required testing to be suitable as a donor, she will give her kidney away, whether it goes to her husband or not. In exchange, a donor will be found for Rev. Sims. The surgeries will all occur at the same time.
In other words, if your loved one needs a kidney, you’ve got to give a kidney to be part of the program.
But first things first – the Sims have learned that to start the process, they must first raise $10,000 so they will be able to pay for the anti-rejection medication once the surgery is performed.
“They want to know you are going to do what you’re supposed to do, that you’re serious about making this work,” Rev. Sims said.
And since they’ve decided to move forward, they’ve been amazed at the outpouring of love and support they have received from their church, the community and beyond. “We’re just so grateful,” Mrs. Sims said. “People have been calling asking what they can do, they’ve been sending money through the mail, they’ve been praying, it’s wonderful.”
The Sims met when they were both Clarke County school bus drivers. Rev. Sims had to give up his job after 22 years because the dialysis was just too time-consuming and exhausting for him to continue. Mrs. Sims still drives a bus.
“My wife has been a blessing,” Sims said. “A lot of times I don’t know what I would have done without her – I tell you, God sent her for me.”
“He basically gave me his life,” his wife says tenderly. “You’ve got to have someone that loves you.”
Rev. Sims describes days of excruciating cramps following dialysis, life-threatening infections, and of having to drive to Loganville for treatments at one point, his wife driving him there and back while still working.
“We’d be so tired, we’d just both pull over to the side of the road and sleep,” she said.
She says she is still amazed that – despite their difficulties – God has blessed them so much. “It really is amazing how God puts things together – God knew I was supposed to be his wife,” she said, adding that she had prayed for God to send her a man who loved Him and who had children of his own. “I was concerned about bringing another man into my girls’ lives,” she said. “But they love this man like he is their biological father…If you sell yourself out to God, you have to let yourself go to Him – amazing things can happen.”
Assistant pastor William Trimier, who presided over the couple’s marriage, said the entire church is praying for their pastor and will hold a gospel singing fundraiser this weekend. “That is the first thing we’re claiming (in prayer) – to raise the money they need,” he said.
And the Simses are doing their part – modifying their diets, losing weight and exercising so they will be ready when the time comes.
“I would love to do it next week,” Mrs. Sims said. Realistically, they hope to have the surgery by the end of this year. “That is our prayer,” Rev. Sims said.
But they are both quick to say they have already been blessed.
“We’re so thankful, it’s all been a blessing to us already,” Rev. Sims said. “We are overwhelmed.”
Sims conducts marriage counseling sessions for couples and said he often uses his own marriage as an example. Now he’ll have just one more reason to sing his wife’s praises and to teach others the meaning of dedication and of sacrifice.
If you have diabetes or hypertension, contact www.genomed.com. Our treatment works only early on, before a patient has lost more than half of their kidney function. This is typically 3-4 yrs before they need dialysis, i.e. about 2002 for Rev. Sims. Since my paper came out then, if the media had done their job, Rev. Sims would still have his own kidney function now.