Washington Mayor Marion Barry is in good condition after undergoing kidney transplant surgery on Friday at Howard University Hospital.

 

According to Dr. Clive Callender, chairman of the Howard University Hospital surgery department and founder of the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program, who performed the surgery, Barry is “awake, alert and talking” after the surgery. He also added that he should be able to leave the hospital in a week.

 

Barry’s spokeswoman Natalie Williams said the former mayor felt well enough on Saturday morning to read the newspaper.

 

The donor, “almost a perfect match,” is a longtime female friend of the former mayor, identified as 47-year-old Kim Dickens, a D.C. resident.

 

The surgery comes at a time when prosecutors are seeking to have Barry jailed for failing to file his 2007 federal and local tax returns. They say it was the eighth time in nine years that Barry failed to file.

 

Barry said his medical condition distracted him from filling his overdue taxes on time.

 

According to the National Kidney Foundation, the number of people with renal failure keeps growing at an astronomical rate, 90,000 new cases per year, mostly due to an increase in cases of diabetes and obesity, two main factors leading to kidney failure. Last year, 8,816 kidney transplants were done with organs from deceased donors and 4,927 from living donors, making kidneys the most commonly transplanted organ in the United States, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. An important function of the kidneys is to help the body get rid of waste products and excess fluid.

 

The fact that Barry had the chance of finding a living donor is one in a million. “This is a wonderful act, now more than ever, because the waiting list for a kidney is about five years. I think that a second chance at life is a tremendous gift,” Callender said.