Childhood Blood Brother Donates Kidney To Life-Long Friend

KVRR's Adam Ladwig went to his dad's hometown to talk to him and his oldest friend about how they are now closer than ever after more than 60 years

DOUGLAS, Wyoming (KVRR) – Today, August 29th, is my dad’s birthday. Honestly, I wasn’t sure he’d be here to celebrate it this year. But he is, thanks to a bond formed more than 60 years ago. Earlier this month I went to my dad’s hometown to talk to him and his oldest friend. They are now closer than ever after all that time.

Their journey goes way back to the 1950s, in the tiny town of Douglas, Wyoming.

Ron Lambert tells me, “Right when I was born we bought a house on 9th street and Ladwigs lived right next door, so we grew up together.”

Lambert was five years old when my dad, Phil Ladwig, was born in 1960.

Phil adds, “I’ve known him from day one.”

They grew up together. They didn’t tell me *all* the details.

My dad adds, “We did some stupid stuff when we were teenagers.”

But they shared a bond that would foreshadow things to come.

Ron Remembers, “I think we were out in my front yard and we decided ‘Let’s become blood brothers’ so we scratched our finger or hand or something and put them together and became blood brothers.”

You see, my dad knew he had a looming fight.

He explains, “Pretty much my whole life, because my brothers were all sick with kidney disease too, so I knew I’d probably have it.”

Both of my uncles and one of my cousins had kidney transplants. Kidney disease is essentially an inheritance in my family. My dad’s health turned a couple years ago.

He says, “When it really started failing I started getting real bad. I was losing my mind. I couldn’t think right. So much crap in my body I was just out of it.”

He went on the kidney transplant list, but he has Type O blood. That’s the hardest blood type to find a match for. Only another Type O kidney would work. Guess what blood type Ron has.

Ron says, “We were just talking on the phone one day and he said ‘You don’t want to get rid of a kidney, do you?'”

My dad responded, “Yeah, I asked everybody that.”

Ron went through a battery of tests.

According to my dad, “The blood tests were so close we could have been brothers.”

These childhood blood brothers had the perfect blood match. But before the transplant could happen, my dad’s surgery got pushed back three times. He had a tumor on one of his kidneys so they had to take that out. That led to 8 months of dialysis. He wasn’t a fan. There were times he thought it would literally kill him. Then he had an infection that delayed things again. But Ron stood by him.

Ron explains, “The good Lord told me, he said, ‘You know, I’ve saved your life so many times, you don’t know. And I’ve given you such good, good health, you know, I think you should share that health.'”

Finally, the surgery happened in April. Two friends who became blood brothers more than half a century ago now share much more.

Ron adds, “He’s got a piece of me in him, so yeah, we’re kind of bonded.”

Phil adds, “Everybody I told about this goes, ‘God, he must really like you!'”

My dad is the only one left who lived next door to Ron way back when. And Ron wants to keep him around a while longer.

He says, “In some kind of weird, bizarre way I kind of feel like I’m trying to save the whole Ladwig family. They were like a second family to me.”