PEABODY - When Dick Carnevale got a new kidney last July, he also got a change of heart.
Carnevale's new kidney arrived well in time for Christmas, courtesy of Ed Pesce, who gave up one of his own for a friend. But it was only the second of two recent and profound experiences for the 49-year-old Carnevale, Peabody's Public Services director.
"In my life," he said, "I've seen the horrible things that people do to people. Here, I'm seeing the wonderful things people do."
As a U.S. Army Reserve colonel, in 2003 Carnevale saw the worst while commanding the equivalent of a MASH unit - a military hospital - in Iraq. He dealt with problems he'd never seen in Peabody. "I saw people blown up. Legs and arms. ... I had to design a way to deal with body parts." Were they to be burned, buried, was some sort of ceremony in order? "We had to deal with issues like that."
One day, when an Iraqi rushed up and reached in his vehicle and tried to take Carnevale's gun, he pointed it at the man's head. "I could have killed him." It's a moment that still haunts him. "I looked at him, eye to eye. If he'd have grabbed my pistol, I would have had to kill him. I'm not a steely eyed warrior." He smiles. "I'm a lover, not a fighter." The smile fades away. "It still bothers me."
Carnevale's new kidney arrived well in time for Christmas, courtesy of Ed Pesce, who gave up one of his own for a friend. But it was only the second of two recent and profound experiences for the 49-year-old Carnevale, Peabody's Public Services director.
"In my life," he said, "I've seen the horrible things that people do to people. Here, I'm seeing the wonderful things people do."
As a U.S. Army Reserve colonel, in 2003 Carnevale saw the worst while commanding the equivalent of a MASH unit - a military hospital - in Iraq. He dealt with problems he'd never seen in Peabody. "I saw people blown up. Legs and arms. ... I had to design a way to deal with body parts." Were they to be burned, buried, was some sort of ceremony in order? "We had to deal with issues like that."
One day, when an Iraqi rushed up and reached in his vehicle and tried to take Carnevale's gun, he pointed it at the man's head. "I could have killed him." It's a moment that still haunts him. "I looked at him, eye to eye. If he'd have grabbed my pistol, I would have had to kill him. I'm not a steely eyed warrior." He smiles. "I'm a lover, not a fighter." The smile fades away. "It still bothers me."
At the same time, he was part of an incredible effort to treat the injured. The ratio of deaths to wounds in Iraq has been the lowest ever recorded in U.S. combat history.
"I think I did some good," he said. "I'm proud that I was part of that."
When he got home, however, his kidneys were showing signs of giving out because of a hereditary ailment called polycystic kidney disease. Thirty years ago, his father died waiting for a transplant.
To live a normal life, Carnevale needed his own transplant, but donors can be hard to come by. That's when Plymouth resident Ed Pesce came forward and offered one of his kidneys. The operation was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"I'm still amazed that somebody gave me a part of his body," Carnevale said, shaking his head. "I don't know - it just floors me. And it floors me that there was a fundraiser to raise $15,000. Last time I checked we had $50,000." The money was needed to defer donor Pesce's expenses from lost work. "It's humbling. The support. The cards I've gotten."
For Pesce, Carnevale's roommate at Norwich University, a military school in Vermont, there was no hesitation. "For my best man, my best friend, my fellow soldier, my college roommate, there was no decision to make. When a guy's hurting like that you can't say no. It wasn't going to kill me. It might have killed him (if I didn't). ... He needed help. I was able to give it."
Pesce has strong Salem roots - his uncle Robert Pesce still lives there, and many years ago his dad, Augustus, taught and coached hockey at Salem High. Since the operation, Ed Pesce feels so good that he's become an advocate for making such donations.
"I've had no ill effects," he said. "I feel wonderful. I don't think about it. It's really not that hard to do what I did."
"He's a type-A," Carnevale said. "He was back to work two weeks after surgery."
The hardest part, Pesce said, was the intense physical and psychological screening both men went through prior to surgery. Carnevale praises the city's health coverage - his expenses were minimal for the $200,000 procedure. Additionally, he notes the good luck of having two of the world's best transplant clinics in Boston.
"We've got it really good around here," he says, while showering thanks on his buddy, his wife, Kim, and family, friends, Mayor Michael Bonfanti, co-workers, anybody who helped. City Hall staffers, including Mary Bellavance and Diane Marchese, ran Carnevale's fundraiser.
Carnevale returned to work part time last fall and is working his way back to full-time status.
"The world is a better place," he said. "I've gotten to a stage in my life where - what's important? Less time in work. More with my family. Though I'm still committed to work and doing a good job."
On the wall of his office is a long list of projects. In the Public Services yard is a rusting, disassembled steam locomotive that Carnevale - a train buff - is working in his spare time to restore as a downtown landmark.
The cysts that choked the life out of his kidney have now ganged up on his liver - but while that development has left him with an enlarged midsection - "My liver is the size of a basketball" - it isn't life-threatening. "I'm not going to have six-pack abs this year," he joked.
In the scheme of things, it doesn't add up to much. Carnevale is focused instead on the positive, on the miracle of the gift he's received. "To have Ed. My wife," he said, shaking his head. "I'm a lucky guy. Very lucky. ... To have something like this happen makes a cynic like me hopeful."
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