After waiting five years, Raymond Brangman was finally able to urinate and he said the release felt better than sex. Five years on the New England donor list for a kidney, Mr. Brangman said he was on the brink of giving up entirely when suddenly his fate changed.

“I was working at Lefroy House where I am a nurse’s assistant. At 6.15 in the morning I got a call. I answered and they said it was Brigham and Women’s Hospital, that they had a kidney for me would I be willing to come up. So I said sure.”

Mr. Brangman and his wife flew out on the next available flight at 2 p.m. that day, and at 6 o’clock that night the operation began. His wife, Diane said the wait seemed interminable. “I cried for the whole day. Our daughter was with me and she was helpful but the hardest part was waiting while he was in the operating room,” she said.

Then just before 2 a.m. the doctor came to her with the good news that the operation was over and her husband was fine.

“When I came to I was still groggy,” he said, “and then they had to dialyze me because they said my potassium levels were kind of high. So they dialyzed me and after that it was smooth sailing. I feel great, I have no complaints at all. I felt great from then on.

“After not using the bathroom for five years it was such a great pleasure, it was the biggest thrill for me. Better than having sex.”

And Mr. Brangman said he urinated within hours of the operation being complete. “First I had a catheter then after two days that was out and I was back and forward to the bathroom,” he said.

Laughing heartily about his thrill with urination, he said that on the flight to Boston he had said that an advantage of his kidney disease was that he would not have to get up to use the bathroom.

“But on the way back I had to get up and that sure felt good,” he laughed.

Beaming throughout the interview, Mr. Brangman revealed that his mood was not always so bright.

He said after a visit to doctors in Boston last November and December he had decided to come off the donor list. He said after five years of waiting and being told that maybe today will be the day, his day never came.

“Then the doctor said to me that you have been on the list for five years you may need to be on for another five. I said if I wait another five years I’m going to be up in my 60s and so I changed my mind.

“I came back and I told my wife ‘you know, I’m not going to worry about doing this, I’m just going to live on dialysis for the rest of my life.”

Mrs. Brangman alerted a nurse at the Beresford Swan Dialysis Unit of her husband’s change of heart and she lectured and encouraged him to stick with it.

“When I got there the nurse talked and talked and talked to me and told me to hold on and then, when I looked, this came up. Just when I had given up that’s when it came through.

“Now when that nurse sees me she says: ‘Aren’t you glad you didn’t give up? Aren’t you glad that I talked to you?’ And I said yes.

“I can’t thank her enough for having this second life. And I would encourage those who are waiting not to give up because maybe their chance is going to come to have that second life.”

Since 2000 when Mr. Brangman’s kidneys failed he had been going three times a week for dialysis. He said he would leave home from Dockyard on those days at 4.30 in the morning, go on the equipment for three and half hours, then return to Dockyard and go to work at Lefroy House.

The transplant has meant he now has more control over his life. His has more time and he can drink fluids.

“The donor thing is a good thing because it has given me a second chance at life.”