Dwight Toyama has been involved in sports for the better part of his life, but his most meaningful record may be his contributions to the community. Since 2005, the longtime head of the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA), the island’s public school sports federation, has rallied the league’s athletic directors and student athletes for annual fundraising community service projects with proceeds benefiting local nonprofits. Last fall, he and the athletic directors volunteered on Kauai for a bioterrorism preparedness simulation exercise. Just another example of “walking the talk,” explains Toyama.
When the HMSA Kaimana Awards & Scholarship Program was launched in 2005, he encouraged HMSA to reward Hawai‘i high schools and student athletes for their community involvement as well as athletic and academic achievement and sportsmanship.
Toyama is a low-key, humble guy, so some of his colleagues may not know that he donated a kidney to a stranger nine years ago. “Dwight’s in this category of patients who offer to donate a kidney and say, ‘We don’t care who gets it. We just want to help somebody,’” says Dr. Whitney Limm, director of the Renal Transplant Program at Hawaii Medical Center East. Toyama also wanted to show his son and daughter – then in elementary and middle school, respectively – the importance of giving.
Healthy individuals with two kidneys can lead normal lives with one, making it possible for them to donate to someone in need. “It makes sense to give a kidney to a family member, a friend, or somebody you have a relationship with,” says Limm, explaining that people like Toyama are called altruistic non-directed kidney donors. There have been 10 kidneys donated this way in Hawaii since 2002. “It’s a bit of a stretch to give it to a complete stranger. Dwight is really remarkable.”
Toyama underwent months of tests to make sure that he was physically able to donate a kidney. Potential donors also undergo an evaluation to make sure they are psychologically prepared. “Kidney donation is not something we take lightly,” says Limm, who has been part of the surgical team for more than 500 kidney transplants. “It’s a very, very serious decision.”
Meanwhile, Toyama did his own research. “At the time, there were about 300 people in Hawaii waiting for a kidney, and a lot of them wouldn’t make it,” he recalls. From 2001-10, the Renal Transplant Program team has performed 155 live donor transplants. Despite the generosity of both living and deceased kidney donors, though, the need is still great. As of last November, 360 people in Hawaii were on the kidney transplant waiting list.
In July 2002, Limm was part of the team that transplanted one of Toyama’s kidneys to a 15-year-old girl. Later, the recipient and her family invited him to her high school graduation party. “The family was very grateful,” Toyama says. Happily, both the donor and recipient are doing fine today.
Toyama went home three days after his operation and was back in his office two weeks later. “I think I was fortunate,” he says. “For me, the recovery was real easy.” Toyama, now 58, was soon back to his normal exercise routine, which included daily running. Since then, he has had to give up his daily runs because of an arthritic condition, but he still lifts weights and golfs. “I just go out there and hack,” he jokes.
For more information on organ donation, visit the Legacy of Life Hawaii (formerly the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii) website.
