By Sue Finley
Owner Ken Ramsey has texted an update on his June 20 surgery in which he received a donated kidney from family friend Tom Pope, declaring his surgery not only a `huge success,' but a record-breaking one.
“My kidney transplant was a huge success,” said Ramsey via text. “The surgery was done at New York-Presbyterian Hospital at the Weill Cornell Transplant Center by Dr. Sandip Kapur on Thursday June 20th.”
Ramsey said that the kidney was donated by someone he met through his wife Sarah's long illness.
“My generous donor was Tom Pope from Nicholasville, Ky.,” Ramsey said. “He is the husband of Rhonda Pope, who was a caregiver for my wife, Sarah Kathern. He donated me a five-star kidney which has increased my filtration rate from eight percent to 85 percent. Any percentage higher than 60% is normal. I'm doing exceptionally well. My eternal thanks and gratitude to not only Tom and his family, but to the overwhelming support I received from so many people. I just found out that this sets a new Guinness World Record for the oldest person to receive a kidney transplant. I feel blessed and very lucky. Thanks again.”
Ramsey topped the leading-owner standings at Gulfstream in the meeting which concluded in April, and just after coming out of surgery on Thursday, he learned that his Clearly Copper (Copper Bullet) had won the day's sixth race.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
