County kidney donors giving life this Christmas

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Daisy Hernandez of Ventura, left, sheds a tear while recounting how her mother, Micaela Hernandez, right, received a kidney transplant from a stranger in Simi Valley.

No Christmas present can compare to the gifts two Ventura County women received from a chain of strangers.

“I don’t really care about presents,” said Micaela Hernandez, 47, of Ventura. “All I care about is this wonderful gift.”

The gift Hernandez treasures this Christmas is a working kidney. She received the organ from a stranger who shared her blood type: Gregory Thompson, 56, of Simi Valley.

Thompson donated his kidney out of gratitude that another stranger donated a compatible kidney to his wife, Phyllis “Roxanne” Thompson, 54. The kidney Roxanne received was from a Los Angeles woman grateful that her friend got a kidney from another stranger. This pattern continued up a chain that totals 10 donors and 10 recipients.

The Thompsons and Hernandez are the last three links in this 20-person kidney donation chain. The chain is the second and longest kidney donation chain facilitated through the UCLA Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program. UCLA has done four chains since it began getting involved in kidney donation chains in 2008.

A kidney donation chain begins with one altruistic donor. Computers at the National Kidney Registry match that donor up with a compatible recipient somewhere in the U.S. Then a friend or relative of the recipient “pays it forward” by donating a kidney to the next compatible recipient, who also has a donor willing to “pay it forward” with a kidney.

Nearly 80,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. California alone has more than 16,000 people on the list.

“This can potentially expand the living donor pool by 30 to 40 percent,” said Dr. Jeffrey Veale, director of donor exchange at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.

Chain of life

The kidney donation chain concept began in 2007 with University of Toledo urologist Dr. Michael Rees. Anti-rejection drugs were getting better, so there was a gradual evolution of people giving kidneys to nonrelatives, Veale explained.

People began kidney exchanges in 2000, when a compatible donor would give a kidney in exchange for a kidney for a friend or relative. Rees took the concept to the next level, Veale said. An extra donor at the beginning would provide a self-perpetuating chain, rather than a closed “swap” system.

“Once I kind of saw this brewing in the background I said, ‘We got to do this at UCLA,’ ” Veale said.

The first chain at UCLA was in June 2008. To date, 83 transplants have been conducted nationwide thanks to kidney chains, which are gaining momentum in the field of organ donation, according to Suzanne McGuire, living donor transplant coordinator at the UCLA Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program.

“It’s garnering a great deal of interest among transplant centers,” McGuire said. “The number of chains is increasing with every month.”

The chain that included Hernandez and Roxanne Thompson began in June with a Michigan firefighter named Harry Damon, 55. Damon donated a kidney in honor of his son, Nick Damon, who died at 24 in a snowmobile accident.

“What he originally wanted to do was donate a kidney to help a young person his son’s age to have a better life,” Veale said.

Instead, Damon agreed to donate his kidney to stay-at-home mom Sheila Whitney, 49, of Compton, whose son then donated a kidney to a La Canada Flintridge housing manager, and on it went until the chain reached the Thompsons and finally, Hernandez, the last link.

The surgeries in the Nick Damon Kidney Transplant Chain were performed in three separate clusters in June, July and October at the UCLA Medical Center and California Pacific Medical Center.

As grateful as recipients are, McGuire always reminds donors to make this decision carefully.

“This isn’t a small gesture to make,” McGuire said. “It’s a big thing. Sometimes people get very excited and very motivated. It’s important for us to convey to them that this is anesthesia. This is surgery. This is taking care of yourself with one kidney.”

However, Veale said that even when donors get all the facts, the majority are still eager to donate.

Two mothers’ battles

When Roxanne Thompson was pregnant with her fourth child in 1983, she learned she had inherited the same ailment as her mother had — polycystic kidney disease. She was able to avoid dialysis until 2008, when her kidneys were functioning at just 4 percent.

None of her family members were compatible for a transplant, including her husband, Gregory, whose blood type was AB negative.

Across the county in Ventura, Micaela Hernandez was praying for a kidney from an AB-negative donor.

With no underlying health problem, Hernandez suddenly developed high blood pressure at age 36 when she was pregnant with her third child. It was a blow to Hernandez, who had immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico with her husband in the early ’80s so they could find a better life. Now that life was compromised.

The high blood pressure persisted and in 2004, she was diagnosed with kidney failure.

During the years before the transplant, Hernandez worked full time, raised three children and endured dialysis and a crushing depression.

“One time I said, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ ” she said. “I said if God wants me, I should go.”

Her husband, David, talked her out of it, assuring her a kidney would become available. Hernandez confided in a priest at San Buenaventura Mission in Ventura, and he told her to have faith that God would answer her prayers.

In late October, Hernandez received the call. Gregory Thompson had donated a compatible kidney in honor of his wife, who had received a kidney from Ellen Harmetz, 61, a retired Los Angeles flight attendant giving a kidney in honor of her friend, kidney recipient Donna Morrison, 67, of Santa Ana.

The Thompsons visited Hernandez a day after she received Gregory’s kidney. Hernandez and Roxanne cried as she embraced the couple.

“I see Gregory as an angel sent from God,” Hernandez said.

Veale said that almost every race has been represented in the Nick Damon kidney chain: Latino, African-American, Caucasian and Asian.

“The message God is sending us is it doesn’t matter what race we are,” Hernandez said. “We should all see each other as family.”