LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The coronavirus separated a Louisville couple when they needed each other most.
Rob Densmore received a call for a kidney and pancreas transplant at 9 a.m. on March 11 while his wife was on a business trip in Seattle.
“I was like, 'Oh my gosh,'” Densmore said via a Facetime interview from his hospital room. “Of all times, Lisa is in like ground zero for coronavirus.”
The latest reports from the Washington State Department of Health confirmed 904 cases of COVID-19 in the state and 48 deaths. More than half the cases and 90% of the state’s casualties to the novel coronavirus come from King County, the same County Bellafato visited for a business trip.
As Densmore remained in treatment post-transplant, his wife, Lisa Bellafato, went into self-isolation after rushing back to Kentucky.
“They said you can't go home, you can't be around Rob, and you can't be around anyone who is in contact with Rob,” Bellafato told WDRB News in a FaceTime interview from a home where she is temporarily staying in Madison, Indiana. “I said, Oh my God,' and I had a moment where I was kind of devastated by that and started crying ... But then, it was like, 'You got to pull it together and say it's a small price.'”
Densmore was a Type 1 juvenile diabetic. He said he was diagnosed at 14 and stayed as active as he could but battled his blood sugar for 40 years.
“If you go low, you go into like a seizure when your nervous system shuts down,” Densmore said, adding that is had happened to him on several occasions. “We had a couple scary episodes where I actually had to call 911."
Bellafato and Densmore met in middle school in Maryland, but theirs isn’t a story of childhood sweethearts. Densmore joked that all the boys in eighth grade had a crush on the new girl in class. But they lost contact when Bellafato’s family moved to Georgia one year after she enrolled in the small Catholic school.
In 2007, Densmore looked up his childhood crush. Three weeks after his first email, they were engaged, and nine months later, they were married. In 2020, the couple celebrates 13 years together.
“My heart just told me ... when you know, you know,” Bellafato said.
Densmore's health challenges have always been a part of their marriage. At one point, Bellafato tried to be a living kidney donor and appeared to be a match, but it didn’t work out. Suffering from kidney disease, Densmore waited two years on a transplant list for a kidney and a pancreas.
“I just sat here and thought, 'He's in good hands and in God’s hands, and I'm OK with it,'” Bellafato said.
They talk now via Facetime. Bellafato has about a week left in self-isolation. So far, she said she’s showing no signs of COVID-19.
Her husband was released from Jewish Hospital in Louisville on March 17. The transplant was a success.
Rob Densmore
“I really believe it's all the prayers,” Densmore said. “I feel like I have a new battery.”
Post-surgery, his immune system is weak, so they can't risk time together. Bellafato's brother has been at her husband's side as they count down the days to a family reunion.
“If this is the price we had to pay for him to get this amazing gift, I can deal with it,” she said.
Bellafato is a health educator for Passport Health Plan. She said she hopes their story shows the importance of taking care of yourself so you don't get diabetes. It is a major cause of kidney disease.
According to the American Diabetes Association, there are more than 500,000 diabetics in Kentucky, and medical bills in the state cost nearly $5 billion a year.
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