Mother's Kidney Turns 100 in Son After 1978 Transplant

What happened in this story?

A man from Webster, New York, named Ray Vetuskey is marking an unusual milestone. The kidney inside him is turning about 100 years old ¹. He did not receive it recently. He received it as a teenager from his mother.

Vetuskey grew up in the Seabreeze area as the youngest of five children and was close to his mother, Betty ¹. When he was a teenager he became ill. Tests showed his kidneys were not working, and he was placed on dialysis, a treatment that cleans the blood when the kidneys cannot ¹.

In March 1978, when Vetuskey was 16, surgeons at Strong Hospital in Rochester transplanted one of his mother’s kidneys into him ¹. Betty was 52 years old at the time and offered to donate ¹. Vetuskey still keeps his calendar from March 1978, with the surgery date circled ¹. As of early autumn 2026, he continues to live with that same donated kidney.

Why is people calling it a 100th birthday?

The phrase can be confusing at first. Vetuskey himself is not 100. The kidney is about 100 in terms of its own age. A donated organ keeps the age of the person who first grew it. Since Betty was 52 when she donated in March 1978, that places her birth around 1925 or 1926 ¹.

If you add the years from her birth to today, the kidney has now existed for about a century. It spent its first 52 years in Betty’s body and the next 48 years in her son’s body after the 1978 surgery ¹. That is why the family and local news describe the event as the kidney’s 100th birthday.

This way of counting is not used in everyday medical care. Doctors usually talk about how long a transplant has lasted, in this case about 48 years as of October 2026. The 100-year figure is a human way to honor both the mother’s gift and the long survival of the organ.

Why is a transplant lasting this long so rare?

A kidney transplant is a surgery in which a healthy kidney from another person is placed in someone whose kidneys have failed. The new kidney takes over the job of filtering waste and extra fluid from the blood. People can live with one working kidney, which is what makes living donation possible.

Most transplanted kidneys do not work for 48 years. Over time, the body’s defense system may attack the new organ, blood vessels can wear down, and other health problems can add strain. Medicines that calm the defense system help, but they need careful follow-up for life. For an older reader, it may help to think of it like a car engine that was already used for 52 years and then kept running for almost 50 more years without being replaced.

Family donation can sometimes help with matching, but long success still depends on many factors, including health, care over time, and chance. That is why a kidney donated in 1978 and still working in 2026 is described as one for the record books ¹. The available source does not give medical details about Vetuskey’s medicines or checkups, so readers should not draw conclusions about what treatment made this possible.

What does this mean for an ordinary reader?

For most people, this story is not medical advice. It is a reminder of what organ donation can mean for a family. Vetuskey has said his mother did not hesitate to help her son, and he remembers her as a well-loved neighbor ¹. His account shows the personal side of donation, not just the surgery.

It also shows why early care for kidney problems matters. Vetuskey became ill as a teenager, needed tests, and then needed dialysis when his kidneys did not recover ¹. Anyone with signs of kidney trouble, such as swelling, tiredness, or changes in urination, should talk to their own doctor or a local health service. Only a health professional can advise on testing or treatment.

People who are curious about living donation or donation after death can learn more from official organ donation groups or a transplant center in their own country. Those sources explain who can donate, what the risks are, and how families make decisions. This one story is encouraging, but it does not show what will happen for anyone else.

What is still unknown about this case?

The public report is a short local news story, not a medical record. It tells us the key dates, places, and family details: age 16, mother age 52, March 1978, Strong Hospital ¹. It does not provide lab results, the exact birth date used to call it 100, or details about follow-up care.

We also do not know from the sources whether any outside group has confirmed a record. Formal record organizations track achievements in many different fields, for example a football scoring total is recognised as a Guinness World Record ². The kidney report does not cite any registry or formal verification, so readers should treat the 100-year description as the family’s celebration based on the ages and date given ¹.

As of October 4, 2026, that is the full picture available from the sources provided. If more medical or record information is published, it would help explain how this transplant lasted so long and how it compares with other long-surviving transplants.