Laurie Cavanaugh, 48, wife of former University of Hawai'i assistant football coach and current Oregon State coach Mike Cavanaugh, underwent living-donor kidney transplant surgery Tuesday.

Her donor was OSU offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf, 34.

Both are doing well after the procedure at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital.

"First of all, the OHSU folks have been fabulous to us," Mike Cavanaugh said in a release. "They have kept our family and the Langsdorfs updated every step of the way, and we could have not hoped for a better experience and professionalism from the staff here."

The transplant was performed to treat Cavanaugh's diseased kidney, an inherited disorder that affects approximately 1 in 1,000 people.

Patients with this disease suffer progressive kidney failure, usually in mid to late life. In Cavanaugh's case, her kidneys were enlarged.

"The average kidney is the size of a fist; her kidneys were the size of two heads," said Dr. John Barry, Laurie's transplant surgeon and longtime director of the OHSU Kidney Transplant Program. "The surgery took about six hours, and her new kidney began working within minutes."

Langsdorf was identified as being a donor match through tests with 18 individuals.

"When you work as closely as a coaching staff does, you develop some really deep and solid friendships — I guess you could say this is the ultimate in friendship," Mike Cavanaugh said.

Langsdorf and Mike Cavanaugh are in their third years on the OSU staff.

"I want to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers during this time," Mike Cavanaugh said. "The outreach from people has been tremendous. We are looking forward to returning home."

OHSU is home to one of the world's oldest transplant programs, performing the first one in 1959.