When Jim Kruse received the gift of life with a new kidney, he didn’t have to think long about what he was going to do to pay that gift forward—he was already doing it.
For more than two decades, Jim has been sending care packages to troops overseas. Over the years, Kruse’s Krew has shipped thousands of packages to grateful veterans who are serving our country.
Shortly after his transplant, Jim had the opportunity to write a letter to his donor’s family and thank them. “I wanted them to know that I was going to use their loved one’s gift to help other people,” he said. “I wanted them to know their donor was still living in me.”
Jim, a U.S. Army veteran who was stationed in Korea during the Vietnam War, was first diagnosed with stage 4 kidney disease in 2010. At the time, he adopted a kidney friendly diet and was able to improve his health enough that it wasn’t a problem. Then, three years ago, he suffered a heart attack, and after quadruple bypass surgery, he developed severe colon problems. That elevated his kidney disease to stage 5, and he went on dialysis.
Because Jim lives in Palos Heights, Illinois, he was receiving all his care from an Illinois hospital. As his kidney disease progressed, one of his doctors suggested he go to UW Health Transplant Center in Madison, Wisconsin, to get on the wait list for a new kidney. He went on the wait list in 2023, and he received his gift of life on March 11, 2024.
“I have to say, I really was impressed with the staff at UW Health,” he said. “Even with things I didn’t understand, they gave a lot of good information. I was checked on every day by doctors, which doesn’t always happen in a hospital. In the last three years, I’ve had 15 surgeries, and this was the best experience by far.”
Jim has continued to make good on his promise to the donor family to help other people—he hosts a talk show on PHTV 4, a local TV station in Palos Heights, in which he invites veterans to talk about their experiences. He’s determined to bolster veterans’ spirits in whatever way he can.
“When I got home from Vietnam, people treated us so rotten,” he said. “I made a vow that if there was ever another war, I was going to do what I could to make sure these men and women didn’t go through what we went through.”
Now, thanks to his new kidney, he can do that for many more years. “I look at where I’m at, and I realize I’ve been given a great opportunity,” he said.