State Rep. Ron Young was released from the hospital April 8 after complications arose from surgery to donate a kidney to his wife.
Young, R-Leroy Township, was admitted to the hospital March 28 after going through numerous testing to learn he was a donor match for his wife Kathaleen.
His wife had been ill for a long time and received kidney dialysis for the past 10 months.
When doctors said that Ron Young was healthy enough to become a donor, he and Kathaleen Young went ahead with the procedure.
‘We prayed for it and it was the right thing to do,’ Young said.
Doctors performed the surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and for Kathaleen Young it was considered an immediate success and she was released April 7, he said during a phone interview on his way home from the hospital.
She is expected to make a full recovery, he said.
‘As it turns out, I can’t withhold anything from her, even bodily organs,’ Ron Young said.
However, he didn’t feel well after his surgery and it was later discovered that his small intestine had been perforated during the procedure to extract his kidney.
A second surgery began April 2 and ended the next day, he said.
‘They went in and corrected all of that and did the procedure,’ Ron Young said. ‘It was a whole other major surgery and it went well and I’m being released today.’
He had originally planned to head to Columbus on April 9 to vote during a session of the Ohio House of Representatives but will need to miss the session.
He said he feels fine now and expects to make a full recovery and plans to continue working from home in the short term.
The Ohio House of Representatives doesn’t have another session scheduled until April 30 and he hopes to be able to attend.
Ron Young said he continued to work while he was in the hospital.
‘I did some good stuff while I was there and you’ll see some things for Lake County,’ he said.
