Beaver assistant coach shares a rare gift of life.

Byline: From Register-Guard and news service reports

PORTLAND - The wife of an Oregon State assistant football coach was reported `doing well' Thursday night, two days after receiving a transplanted kidney donated by another assistant coach for the Beavers.

Laurie Cavanaugh, the 48-year-old wife of Mike Cavanaugh, OSU's offensive line coach, underwent the living-donor kidney transplant following the removal of both of her diseased kidneys during a six-hour procedure Tuesday at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital.

The kidney was donated by Danny Langsdorf, the 34-year-old offensive coordinator of the Beavers.

`When you work as closely as a coaching staff does, you develop some really deep and solid friendships,' Mike Cavanaugh said. `I guess you could say this is the ultimate in friendship.'

The two coaches have worked together at OSU for three seasons, hired when Mike Riley returned as head coach of the Beavers.

Langsdorf was identified as being a match after tests with 18 other individuals failed to find a suitable donor.

`I want to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers during this time,' Mike Cavanaugh said. `First of all, the OHSU folks have been fabulous to us.

"They have kept our family and the Langsdorfs updated every step of the way, and we could have not hoped for a better experience and professionalism from the staff here.'

The Cavanaughs have two children, sons Shane and Blair.

The transplant was performed to treat Laurie's autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder that affects approximately one person in 1,000. Patients with this disease suffer progressive kidney failure, usually in mid to late life.

`The average kidney is the size of a fist; her kidneys were the size of two heads,' said Dr. John Barry, the surgeon who performed the transplant and the director of the OHSU Kidney Transplant Program.

Barry said `her new kidney began working within minutes' of being transplanted.

Michael Conlin, associate professor of urologic surgery at OHSU, removed Langsdorf's kidney.

OHSU is home to one of the world's oldest transplant programs, performing the first one in 1959, when only 17 had been performed worldwide.

There have been nearly 3,800 successful kidney transplants at the Portland facility since then and OHSU remains one of the world-wide leaders in the procedure.

Success rates for kidney transplants have dramatically increased since the 1960s, and OHSU is consistently ranked in the top 10 percent of hospitals nationally for both patient and kidney survival.

Success rates are highest for those patients who receive kidneys from living donors.