By Rhonda Westfall

Every family has a hero – and some have more than one.

That’s how Bill and Mary (Ritz) Elsea have felt about their children in the past months as they contemplated a kidney transplant operation that involved the donation of an organ by the youngest son, Devin, to his father.

"Any one of the kids wanted to help their dad, but Devin was the one the doctors chose as the best candidate," Mary said of the couple’s five children, and of the "miracle" operation that took place Oct. 13 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.

As of last Thursday, Devin was resting back home in St. Johns and Bill was expected to return home over the weekend. Incredibly, the amount of time that elapsed between the removal of Devin’s kidney and its placement into Bill was just 14 seconds.

"They call it ‘cold time,’ – that’s just incredible," an Elsea daughter, Stacie Cole, said of the transplant operation that took only about four hours total. Devin was back in his room by noon after the 7 a.m. start; Bill was out of recovery by 3 p.m.

While the operation itself went very well, the family did have a scare on Tuesday when Bill went into cardiac arrest and ‘flat-lined’ for a period of time.

"There were all kinds of doctors and nurses huddled around him, getting him back," Stacie said, adding that the seizure was most likely a reaction to blood pressure medication. "They made some changes and Dad was doing much better by the next day."

Bill and Mary will make several trips each week for the next two months back to Grand Rapids where doctors will monitor the ‘acceptance’ of his body for the new kidney. Anti-rejection drug therapy will become part of the daily routine for the construction worker who just turned 62 on Sept. 30 – a small price to pay for a fully functional kidney.

"Everybody says he should be as good – or better – than new," Mary said, recalling the past two years of declining health after he was diagnosed with kidney failure. "He’s been on dialysis since last December, but has really gone downhill in the past few months."

Each of the Elsea children – Todd, Rory, Stacie, Devin and Deanna – were eager to help their father by donating an organ, but Devin was selected by the doctors. Like his father, the 1993 graduate of St. Johns High School is employed in construction, working primarily in restoration repair.

"I really don’t know what we’d do without the kids – they all have helped so much with everything that Bill has been through," Mary said.

Still, for the Elsea siblings, Devin’s gift is something special.