Scott Dodson of Park Country Club in Williamsville, N.Y. and Brian Conn of Transit Valley CC in East Amherst, N.Y. are both recovering well after a transplant operation, which was needed after Dodson’s congenital condition had deteriorated to leave him with just 7 percent kidney function.
Park Country Club in Williamsville, N.Y. and Transit Valley Country Club in East Amherst, N.Y., frequently compete for members and events in the greater Buffalo, N.Y. market. But in another example of the unique collegial camaraderie found in the club industry, that didn’t stand in the way of an inspiring and unselfish show of generosity when Park CC’s Golf Course Superintendent, Scott Dodson, CGCS, was in dire need of a kidney donation.
Golf Course Management (GCM) reported that Dodson returned home on January 15 after he received a new kidney on January 9. The donor, GCM reported, was Transit Valley CC’s Superintendent, Brian Conn, CGCS.
Conn had learned about Dodson’s situation, GCM reported, through an e-mail sent last year by Thad Thompson, Golf Course Superintendent of Terry Hills Golf Course in Batavia, N.Y. and the President at the time of the Western New York chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). Thompson detailed how Dodson, 60, had been born with scarred kidneys and how a major course renovation at Park CC had taken its toll, leaving him with just 7 percent kidney function.
Thompson appealed to his fellow superintendents to do anything they could to help spread the word about the need to find a donor for Dodson, who had been on a list for a kidney transplant since 2016. After reading Thompson’s e-mail, GCM reported, Conn, 48, told his wife Jennifer in May that he wanted to be a donor, and with her support he began to go through a battery of tests to determine whether he would be a match.
In August, GCM reported, Conn went to see Dodson at Park CC, as the course renovation was nearing completion of a major renovation.
“I think he thought I was going to borrow a piece of equipment,” Conn told GCM. “I told him I’d been through the testing process and had been preapproved. He got emotional. He couldn’t believe it.”
For his part, Dodson told GCM, “I didn’t know what to say. I said, ‘Why? Why me?’ His answer was so simple and nonchalant. He said, ‘It is the Christian thing to do.’
Because Conn has O-negative blood, a type found in only 6.6 percent of the population, he is considered a universal donor, GCM reported, and able to be part of a transplant experience to almost any patient in need from any blood group. In mid-September, while Dodson began dialysis three times a week, Conn gave 28 vials of blood, took a stress test and had an MRI on his chest and kidney regions. Because some calcification was found on his spleen, he had to have more blood work done before he was approved by an infectious disease specialist. But around Halloween, GCM reported, Conn received the news that he could donate a kidney to Dodson.
That started a waiting period that Conn, a father of two, described as “excruciating” to GCM. “What if you go to the grocery store and get in an accident?” he asked. “What if something happens to one of our kids? Cold and flu season? If either of us is sick, it gets put off. It can be a real mental drain.”
No wonder, then, that Conn told GCM he was relieved when January 9th arrived. “I was happy to get into that operating room. I felt the weight of the world off my shoulders,” he said. During a six-hour operation at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., Conn’s left kidney was removed and placed inside of Dodson, whose original kidneys remained while the new one was situated below his right rib cage and tied into his bladder area.
Now, with both men home and recovering, GCM reported, Dodson, who with his wife Brenda has three children and a grandchild, is off dialysis and grateful for the support he has received from Park CC, and in particular his Assistant Superintendent, Jim Frey.
“There isn’t anything I won’t be able to get back to doing,” Dodson, himself the son of a superintendent, told GCM. To guard against infection, he will be on anti-rejection medications for the rest of his life, will make plentiful use of hand sanitizer, and has been advised to wear a mask for a while when going to places like the grocery store.
Conn has lost 30 percent of his total kidney function, which he was told was OK as long as he takes care of himself. And the two colleagues have formed a bond, GCM reported, that will help make sure they watch out for each other.
“We’ve already kind of planned things [to do together],” Conn told GCM. “They do a family game night. Our wives have been texting, talking. I think it’s going to be a way different relationship.”
A relationship that will include an abundance of mutual admiration between the two men, who previously knew each other mainly through their GCSAA chapter events and occasional visits to the other’s club.
“Brian is an incredible human being,” Dodson told GCM. Added Conn: “This [the donation experience] is all reinforcement that [Scott] is a wonderful person.”
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