A Poway couple, who found love later in life, are now facing the most difficult challenge to their \u201cin sickness and in health\u201d vows.<\/p>\n
He needs a kidney. She turns out to be an extraordinary match. It is a story of both commitment and sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Jim Irish says his wife is one in a million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I met Mirna, I just knew,\u201d Jim Irish said.<\/p>\n
What he couldn\u2019t have known almost 10 years ago when they married is that she is a compatible kidney donor. The odds are one in 100,000.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s my sign right there that I am here to help him,” Mirna Irish said.<\/p>\n
“I said the odds are so crazy. I love you so much for even suggesting it,\u201c Jim Irish said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jim Irish was a committed bachelor. He spent the first 50 years of his life collecting pattens for his inventions. One of them is the Vin scanner. He created and sold a number of Fortune 500 companies and was among San Diego\u2019s Technology Fast 50.<\/p>\n
Mirna Irish was a schoolteacher in Tijuana, raising three children on her own. Her son is a paraplegic.<\/p>\n
An online dating site matched the two of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were going to go for a drink, and I met her and I went, ‘Wow,'” Jim Irish said.<\/p>\n
“That was the best night ever,\u201d Mirna Irish said.<\/p>\n
It was the date that never ended.<\/p>\n
The clock is ticking. Surgery is scheduled for Aug. 8 at Sharp Memorial Hospital. While Jim and Mirna Irish expect a certain degree of difficulty in recovery, the challenges leading up to this may seem far worse.<\/p>\n
The journey started more than two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, ‘I don\u2019t know what am I going to do. What\u2019s going to happen?’ I said, ‘I can give you my kidney,’\u201d Mirna Irish said.<\/p>\n
In the discovery of Jim Irish needing a transplant and Mirna Irish being a match, doctors first found a growth on his left kidney. It was destroyed, then came the removal of his lower colon, hemoglobin shots and intravenous infusions. After that, a cancerous tumor was found on his right kidney.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of things go wrong with the body when your kidneys don\u2019t function properly,\u201d Jim Irish said.<\/p>\n
Mirna Irish was found to have inactive tuberculosis, traced to a childhood vaccination.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so worried. I thought, ‘What if I can\u2019t? What if I want to, and I can\u2019t?'” Mirna Irish said.<\/p>\n
That was followed by six months of treatment for her. Jim Irish had another surgery, and as of two weeks ago, he is cancer free.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very emotional. It was a lot of hurdles that were just organic,\u201c Jim Irish said.<\/p>\n
Since Jim Irish\u2019s kidneys still function at about 10%, Mirna Irish\u2019s donation will be an addition instead of a replacement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot behind it. Emotionally, she stepped up. She stepped up and saved my life,” Jim Irish said.<\/p>\n
Sharp Hospital says its transplant patient survival rate after a year is nearly 100%. Beyond that, Jim Irish can have a good chance at a normal life expectancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to travel and love my wife as much as I can,\u201d Jim Irish said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the love of my life. He\u2019s more than I prayed for,” Mirna Irish said.<\/p>\n
After a pre-operation consultation just Wednesday, Jim Irish and his wife are in good physical condition and good spirits. Surgeons are giving the procedure a green light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Poway couple, who found love later in life, are now facing the most difficult challenge to their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":106830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,52406,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-106829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-poway","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114946364233851290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}