HUGUENOT, NY – It’s been more than a year since two local volunteer firefighters, both active in helping to save lives and property as active emergency responders, underwent surgery together.  The outcome? A kidney successfully transplanted from one brother firefighter to another.

Thomas and Bruce Kalin are not only brother firefighters, but actually really brothers. They are part of a close-knit extended family unit with decades of firefighting service, including as department and company leaders in their community.

Thomas “TJ” Kalin, longtime Chief of Huguenot Fire Department, became a firefighter in 1993. Now 46, he has continued to serve as an active volunteer over the past 31 years. 

Bruce Kalin, 49, grew up watching his father and uncle respond to calls with Port Jervis Fire Department. and chose to became a junior PJFD firefighter himself in 1992. He currently serves as an active firefighter (past lieutenant and captain) with TJ, in HFD. The two serve alongside younger brother Vernon Kalin III and their father Vernon Kalin, Jr. The four Kalin HFD firefighters are among multiple other emergency service volunteers who remain active as firefighting volunteers in the Tri-State community.

It would likely not surprise most who know this family to learn that when TJ, who has Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), was in need of a transplant, several people tested to see if they could help. His sister-in-law turned out to be a match, along with his brother Bruce. Once they were identified as suitable donors, both were willing to proceed.

“I just had to give my brother TJ a chance at a more fulfilled life to be around for his wife Gail and my beautiful nieces Emily and Lauren,” Bruce said.

TJ’s transplant was on July 19, 2023.

TJ recalled the actual surgery as requiring four to five hours to remove the kidney from his brother, and eight hours to place it in him. Both spent about three days in the hospital following the transplant, and recovery time of four weeks for Bruce and six months for TJ. Both are now healthy and doing well.

Prior to the transplant, TJ required dialysis treatment three days a week, three hours at a time. If not for this transplant, he would have remained on dialysis. Unfortunately, this disease is not unheard of in TJ’s family. Younger brother Vernon underwent a transplant on January 2nd of this year, successfully receiving a kidney from his wife Megan. 

According to Mayo Clinic’s website, TKD is a genetic disease in which fluid-filled sacs called cysts grow mainly in the kidneys, causing them to work less well. The disease can cause various medical symptoms, such as high blood pressure, headaches, kidney stones or infections, and belly and back pain.  The condition is caused by a gene change, also called a mutation. Most often, this disease runs in families. Either or both parents can pass on a copy of the mutated gene to a child, with symptoms most often starting between the ages of 30 and 40. However, some people get TKD without inheriting a mutated gene, and their gene changing on its own.

The Kalins credit their family, fellow firefighters, and others for their unending support and encouragement.

“I have a wife of 20-years and we have two beautiful daughters,” TJ said. “They all supported me from the beginning and were always there for me through good times and bad. Now I am feeling great, and living life to the fullest I can, and take every chance I can to be with family and friends.”

“My family and the officers and members of the Huguenot Fire Company were very supportive and helpful through the whole process, especially my wife Julie and daughter Rylie,” said Bruce.  “It was a long process but very rewarding.”

TJ’s advice for others? “Just don’t take life for granted.”