Kidney transplants at UCLA Medical Center have a domino effect

SOURCE:  Molly Hennessy-Fiske.  Los Angeles Times

At 8:25 Thursday morning, Dr. Peter Schulam extracted a healthy kidney from a 60-year-old woman, slipped it into a bowl of sterile ice and wheeled it into the operating room next door. The donor, Nancy Seruto, a San Dimas mother, had never met the recipient, a 67-year-old retired flight attendant from Santa Ana.

Less than two hours later, Seruto’s husband was on the same operating table at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Another stranger, a 53-year-old Chatsworth mother of two, was giving him a kidney.

They were among 18 patients paired by surgeons as part of a rare transplant chain, built largely on trust.

Each link in the chain represents a paired donation in which a donor gives a kidney to a stranger, trusting that another stranger will donate a kidney to his or her loved one in return.

Such chains are difficult to build, because of the trust issues involved and medical complications. Donors and recipients must have compatible blood types and antibodies. Surgeons usually have to perform multiple transplants simultaneously in adjacent operating rooms, both to ensure that transplanted kidneys stay healthy and that donors do not get sick or back out, breaking the chain.

After Celia Contreras, 39, volunteered to donate her kidney to help a family friend as part of the UCLA chain, she said her husband pressured her not to, worried that their three children might one day need a kidney.

Contreras, an elementary school teacher, held her ground.

“I truly believe that what you put out there comes back to you,” she said.

For would-be recipients, donor chains can shorten the wait for a transplant by years, experts say. As of this month, 82,061 people nationwide were waiting for a kidney; 16,416 of them in California, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, based in Richmond, Va.

Network officials are developing a national registry that they plan to launch next year with five pilot sites, including UCLA. That could lead to an additional 1,000 to 2,000 kidney transplants annually, according to Dr. Bryan Becker, president of the New York-based National Kidney Foundation.

“It’s a huge opportunity to expand the donor pool,” said Dr. Jeffrey Veale, director of the UCLA Kidney Transplantation Exchange Program.

For now, donor pairs have to rely on smaller networks, including the National Kidney Registry in Babylon, N.Y., which two years ago started keeping a list of paired donors. UCLA surgeons used the registry to build the latest donor chain, their fifth and one of about a dozen the registry coordinated nationally this year, a spokesman said.

The chain started last year with Harry Damon, a firefighter in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Damon, 55, wanted to donate in memory of his 22-year-old son, who had died in a snowmobile crash. He contacted the registry looking to give his kidney to a young man.

Instead, he was matched with Sheila Whitney, 49, of Compton, a disabled teacher’s aide with lupus who had been waiting on dialysis for more than six years.

“I thought, ‘This is bound to be,’ ” Damon said.

He flew to Los Angeles for the chain’s first transplant June 8.

The same day, Whitney’s 27-year-old son, Reginal Griffin, donated to Keenan Cheung, 44, a USC housing manager and father of three from La Cañada Flintridge. Cheung’s wife, Jeanne, 43, who works at a Burbank production company, donated to Sonia Valencia, 29, a resource teacher in Commerce who is friends with Contreras.

Surgeons then had to coordinate with the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco to match Contreras with Priscilla “Pia” Miller, 36, of Fresno, a disabled bank teller, flying Contreras’ kidney to San Francisco for a transplant June 10.

Miller’s roommate’s brother, Anton Goodfriend, 25, of Springfield, Mo., an armored car driver, then flew to San Francisco in July to donate to Ross Bloom, 55, a real estate investor in Chatsworth. Bloom, who was incompatible with 97% of donors on most waiting lists, called the chain a miracle.

On Thursday, his wife of 34 years, Fern Bloom, donated to Joseph Seruto, 64, a business owner from San Dimas. Bloom had never been operated on before, but was giddy as she waited in a gown in the preoperative room. She called the chain “bashert,” Yiddish for “meant to be.”

Down the hall, Seruto’s wife, Nancy, a bookkeeper, was preparing to donate to retired flight attendant Donna Morrison.

The Serutos did not have to join the chain — they were compatible with each other. The couple, who have been married 37 years and have two grown children, chose to participate after their doctor suggested they could help Morrison, a former globe-trotting flight attendant who had been on dialysis for several years.

Late Thursday, Morrison’s fellow Continental flight attendant, Ellen Harmetz, 61, of West Los Angeles, donated to Phyllis Thompson, 54, of Simi Valley, a stay-at-home mom.

Thompson’s husband, Gregory, 56, a project manager at an architectural firm, is scheduled to make the last donation in the chain Tuesday.

Hospitals generally do not allow members of a transplant chain to meet before their operations, wary that they might back out.

UCLA surgeons allowed the first few pairs of the latest chain to meet at the hospital the day after the first batch of surgeries.

Griffin was surprised to discover his kidney had gone to an Asian man. He had assumed the recipient was white.

“I was amazed to see the line-up of the chain — all different ethnicities,” Griffin said.

The mood of the gathering reminded him of the atmosphere after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

“When people are really in need of help, we forget about the class system and race and really reach out,” he said. “It humbles you, the whole situation.”

His mother, who was still recovering, went in pajamas, rail thin, scars snaking down her arms from years of dialysis, determined to meet Damon.

Recalling that meeting this week, Whitney started to cry.

“I had went through so much,” she said, at home and back to her normal weight. “A lot of times I wanted to give up.”

Thursday’s pairs were also curious about each other. They eyed strangers in the hospital waiting room, trying to find their match.

“I would love the opportunity to thank them,” Thompson said.

They were all recovering well late Thursday, and are scheduled to meet for the first time at the hospital today.

Thanx, i Thanx for Please, Your Welcome & Thanks

I Thanx to all who say thanx, Please, & Your Welcome.  Have you ever seen the difference in people when you just say those three little things?  It’s amazing how the Angry, uptight, always in a hurry or just going through the daily grinde guy stops and looks at you with surprise. 

Those three words makes everyone feel good & respected as a person.  Shouldn’t we all feel this way?  Wouldn’t that make the day more pleasent?  Wouldn’t that make the world a little bit better?  I say we all play our part & do as our parents have shown us. 

Lets make this part of us & touch everyone we come in contact with our Thanx, Please, Your Welcome.

i Thanx  

 

iThanx why ??? A Man Kills his own Kids.

iTHANX,

Do jeh, Tack, Shukria, Merci, Gracias ,  ARIGATO,  Kamsah Hamnida,  Toda,  CHEERS, Obrigado, Grazi, Shukran              

 

 

iThanx for the ability to know good from bad & the gift of life.

 

I heard a story in the local late news the other night about a father killing his three young kids because in his mind their mother is letting them be abused & get into prostitution.  The father said he wanted them to be saved from this life & giving them to God is the only way to save them.

I can’t get this story out of my head because I keep hearing my son say the same thing as the little girl said ” I’m sorry daddy”, when I send him to his room after doing something bad like fighting with his brother or not listening to his Mom.  He always has tears in his eyes & me or his mom being upset with him hurts him more then anything in the world. 

I’ve been going crazy thinking how would a father do this to his kids?  How can anyone do this to anyone?  How does the world keep going on after something like this is done? How How How????

Got me to think, iThanx for making me who I am.  iThanx for giving me the ability to have the right mind frame & good mental health.  iThanx for having the choice to think straight & know good from bad.  iThanx for life.

I want you to read this story no matter how hard it gets to do so just keep reading.  Then just say thanks for who you are.  Say thanks for the ability to think & know good from bad.  Say thanks for having love in your life.

 

This is in his own words.  The Story from GlobalTVBC

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Woken by her dad’s first attempt to stab her in the neck, 10-year-old Kaitlynne Schoenborn uttered three words before she was murdered: “I’m sorry, daddy.”

 

Allan Schoenborn, charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the April 2008 deaths of his children, testified in B.C. Supreme Court that he killed Kaitlynne first, shortly after kissing his children on the head and tucking them in after a long day of flying kites, watching television and playing games.

 

Schoenborn, 41, said he struck at sleeping Kaitlynne’s neck with a knife. “It just bounced off her,” he wailed. “She woke. I swung at her, I was already through with it in my mind. She may have put her hand up.”

 

“Did she say anything when she woke up?” asked defence lawyer Peter Wilson.

 

“She said, “I’m sorry, daddy,’” Schoenborn said in anguish.

 

“I swung it again, something quick at her neck. I thought this was the quickest way to give her up.

 

“I told her to go to the white father. She gave up.”

 

He went next to Cordon, 5, who was sleeping on his bed in the family’s Merritt, B.C. home. Schoenborn calmly told the Kamloops judge how he put a pillow on the boy’s face and his hand behind his head.

 

“He fussed a bit. I moved the pillow away and put my hand there. I laid on top of him, with all my weight,” he said, before sobbing an apology to Darcie Clarke, Schoenborn’s former common-law wife and mother of the three murdered children. “I’m so sorry Darcie. I’m sorry to you, woman . . .”

 

Clarke found her children the day after the murders after spending the night at her mother’s while Schoenborn watched the children.

 

Regaining his composure, Schoenborn testified it took about five minutes for Cordon to die. He said he felt little gasps of air slip between his fingers as Cordon’s chest heaved. “And then he didn’t. He laid quiet.”

 

Finally, he turned his attention to Max, 8, who fought hard when Schoenborn put a plastic bag over his head and drew it tight at the back of his neck.

 

“He fought me, he fought me,” Schoenborn said, crying again. “I told him it was daddy, ‘shhh.’ He settled down right after I said that. He was still there, he heard me.

 

“Maxie was about two minutes.”

 

Schoenborn told the court he was tortured by his certainty all three of his children were being molested. So he came to the conclusion it was best to kill them.

 

“I did it for all the right reasons. I did it for them. I gave my children up to be in a better place,” he said.

 

Schoenborn told the court about an incident at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre he claimed he’s never talked about before. He said that while he was walking an outdoor courtyard alone, he saw sparkling lights dancing on water next to a wall.

 

“It was Kaitlynne’s spirit. She said she forgived me. That’s all she said, ‘I forgive you, dad.’ That was enough for me. Every other question was answered.”

 

“Do you love your kids?” Wilson asked.

 

“If Kaitlynne forgived me, I know the boys forgived me. I was a little rougher on her. She came down to tell me that.”

 

Schoenborn also described Wednesday how he tried to kill himself by cutting his arms open, but could not bleed enough. He left the house with the dog, not wanting Darcie to find him and stop him from joining the children.

 

He fled from police for 10 days, wandering the wilderness above Merritt with his dog until he was found, near death, by two men, who then called police.

 

Schoenborn told the court Wednesday that the couple “had troubles,” adding he suspected his Clarke was having an affair.

 

Schoenborn testified he lived with “unanswered questions” about his wife for at least 10 years of their 15-year marriage. He said his accusations about Clarke’s fidelity drove the family apart. He accused her of sleeping with another man.

 

The Crown claims that the killings were an act of revenge against Clarke, while the defence is focusing on Schoenborn’s mental state at the time of the murders.

HOW MANY WAYS TO SAY iTHANX. part 2

Just some ways to say thanks

Any other ways?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iTHANX, look at what you do have.

iThanx everyday for all the basic things in life that most of us take for granted.  Why do we always seem to look at things that we don’t have when the things that we do have other people around the world would do anything for.  Look at the people in the Middle East who have their family and friends die in front of them with the ongoing war and hate between each other.  Look at the people in africa with aids, no homes & being raped.   Look at the people in our own backyards that are homeless & jobless.  People in our own backyards living on the street with mental health issues & can’t even help themselves.  All these people with real life issues of no food, no home, Rape & Killing, and HERE WE ARE WORRIED ABOUT WANTING MORE MONEY, WANTING A BIGGER HOUSE, WANTING  A NICER CAR, WANTING WANTING WANTING. 

You know what?  iTHANX for my awesome Wife & Two BOYs & having good Health, iTHANX for GOD, iTHANX for all my Family & Friends, iTHANX for my Work, iTHANX for our Home & Company Car,  iTHANX for keeping all of us Healthy Happy & Alive through today and everyother day.

Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t try to keep growing everyday in our life striving for all the things that we want.  I’m just saying that iTHANX for everything that I do have & along the way to growing our dream, we need to say Thanks & try to help others in need.

iTHANX

HOW MANY WAYS to say iTHANX

                                        

                                    iTHANX

 

Do jeh, Tack,

 Shukria

 Merci, Gracias 

ARIGATO

    Kamsah Hamnida

    Toda, CHEERS

  

                         Obrigado, Grazi, Shukran,

 

iThanx for all the Basic Things In Life

 

iThanx

Thank you for all the basic things in life, promise never to take them for granted.

Thank you for giving my family & I another day in this life,
we thank you for the ability To WALK To TALK To HEAR & To SEE. Thank you for the ability To BREATH, To THINK, To Have CHOICE, & To GIVE & FEEL LOVE.
Thank You for the Ability To CRY & LAUGH, To FEEL HURT & HAPPY, To Have never Given Up after FAILURE after FAILURE after FAILURE, now Seeing SUCCESS ALL AROUND ME with my FAMILY, way more than I have ever imagined as I OPEN MY EYES.

Thank you for all the little things you have given us such as
our hands, fingers, nails, arms, elbows, shoulders, neck, chin, mouth, lips, teeth, nose, eyes, hair, ears, chest, stomach, main guys & main girl, bum, knees, calves, ankles, feet, toes, toenails, and much more.
Promise never to take them for granted & ask you to keep them with us always.

Thank you for my family & friends, I ask you to take us into your arms, show us right from wrong and the right way to heaven and to you.
Please keep us happy healthy safe & alive tonight, tomorrow & for as long as you see.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!