Perfect Match: Woman Donates Lifesaving Kidney to Her Identical Twin

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 26, 2024) -- Identical twins Linda Thomas and Karen Rodman, 56, have shared everything from the moment they were born. The Las Vegas residents live less than five miles from each other. They work together, carpool together, shop together. Their phone numbers would be identical, save for the last digit.

“I’ve always said, we’re like one coat of paint,” Thomas said. “Even our parents often couldn’t tell who was who when talking to us on the phone.”

Now, the sisters share more than just their DNA—they share a kidney. They also share an uncommon transplant experience, said Irene Kim, MD, the Esther and Mark Schulman Chair in Surgery and Transplantation Medicine and director of the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center.

“It’s a rare event to transplant a patient with a genetically identical organ because it requires having an identical twin,” Kim said. “This is only the second time in my career that this has happened.”

The twins’ transplant story began in October 2021, when Thomas was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer that affects plasma cells. The disease caused her to go into kidney failure and damaged the C1 vertebra in her spine, putting her in a neck brace for more than six months. The next few years included a litany of medical procedures for Thomas, including chemotherapy, neck surgery and even a bone marrow transplant. Her twin was by her side every step of the way.

While Thomas’ cancer is now in remission, her kidney function never returned to normal. A transplant was the next step to keep her from requiring IV fluids or dialysis for the rest of her life. Rodman didn’t hesitate to volunteer to donate one of her own kidneys.

“We never even had to have a conversation about it,” Rodman said. “I knew I couldn’t go on with my life with my sister not being able to have a better quality of life. It was just the right thing to do.”

There were concerns, however, that the immunosuppressant medications typically required for transplant patients to keep their body from rejecting a transplanted organ could cause a recurrence of Thomas’ multiple myeloma. But through testing, Thomas and Rodman learned they were a match across all markers and were more than 99% identical, meaning Thomas could avoid the antirejection drugs that could have caused her cancer to return.  

“Transplantation requires immunosuppression to trick our immune systems into believing that the organ we’re transplanting is not foreign so that our body’s natural immune defense doesn’t attack or reject it, and that immunosuppression can have a lot of side effects of its own,” Kim said. “That we can avoid immunosuppression altogether for Linda by transplanting a kidney that is genetically identical to hers is really exciting and remarkable.”

Kim explained this is an uncommon occurrence in the transplant world not only because demographically, there are just fewer identical twins, but also because doctors must consider the reason a transplant is required. If a transplant is necessary due to a genetic predisposition for kidney disease, giving up a kidney could put the donor at risk down the line. In Thomas’ case, her multiple myeloma was nongenetic.

“Living donor transplants are always an emotional event filled with stress and gratitude, but the bond Linda and Karen share as identical twin sisters is palpable,” Kim said. “It was just such an honor from a transplant surgeon’s perspective to be part of that.”

The pair underwent successful kidney donation and transplant procedures at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in mid-October. The transplanted kidney began working immediately and Thomas was able to have her dialysis port removed shortly after surgery because it was no longer needed.

Thomas and Rodman spent the remainder of the month and most of November recovering together in Los Angeles so they could be close to the hospital for their many follow-up appointments. As they regained their strength following surgery, they often would spend afternoons visiting local beaches to walk together on the sand.

“The beach is our happy place,” Rodman said.

“I’m just so grateful to have been able to go through this with my sister. If it had been the other way around, it would have absolutely been the same,” Thomas said. “I would do anything for my sister.”

As they look to the future, they’re excited for more big milestones with their families. Rodman recently learned she’ll be a first-time grandmother next spring. They also look forward to more camping trips to the beach and the opportunity to travel.

“We’re only 56 years old,” Rodman said. “We have places to go. We have things to do. We have more life to live.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Discoveries Magazine—OR Talk: Triple Organ Transplant