Valley View Elementary parent to donate organ to mother with kidney disease

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Making a lifelong connection

PLEASANTON: Valley View Elementary parent to donate organ to mother with kidney disease
By Eric Louie

CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched:07/01/2007 03:04:23 AM PDT
Tiffani Schaefer and her family moved to the Central Valley last year, but she says her heart remains in Pleasanton.

This fall, the love she gave to the community, especially to Valley View Elementary, where she volunteered as a parent and worked part time, will come back to her in the form of a different vital organ.

After a friend put the word out at the school that Schaefer was sick and in need, another parent -- who Schaefer describes as an acquaintance -- came forward offering her a kidney.

"I was shocked," said Schaefer, 39, the mother of two children, ages 10 and 14. "I was like 'Wow, we barely know each other.'"

The donor, Hallie Wake, 46, is a married homemaker with three children ages 20, 14 and 9. She said that besides being listed as an organ donor on her driver's license, the idea of organ donation had never come up in her life before. But she remembered Schaeffer as a person who helped others, and she wanted to be there for her.

"People are here to help each other," said Wake. "We're not just operating in our own world."

Schaefer learned more than a decade ago that she has glomerulonephritis, a type of kidney disease that took her brother's life.

Despite her illness and doctors' warnings about her weakened immune system, she kept working with kids, whom she calls her "medicine."

Last year, partially for her husband's job, Schaefer and her family moved to Newman and bought their first home. In February, she learned her kidneys were failing.

Schaefer, who does home dialysis, was placed on the national transplant waiting list. She then put out the word to family and friends that she was looking for a donor. A friend from Valley View, through the school newsletter, told other parents that Schaefer -- who had been active with the parent faculty club, worked yard duty and was a teacher's aide and tutor -- needed a kidney.

Schaefer heard from Wake, whose son she had helped protect from others who had picked on him.

She said many people want to help, but that donating a kidney is a major decision.

"I'm as nice as you can get. I'm not that nice," she said. "I would have done it for a child, maybe a best friend. But someone I knew as an acquaintance?"

Wake, on the other hand, said the decision was surprisingly easy.

She remembered Schaefer as someone who was always trying to be there for everyone at the school.

"I was very shocked to learn she was that sick," she said. "It was almost an instant reaction. ...

"She seemed so caring about everybody. ... If I was having a bad day, she would listen."

After a variety of tests and psychological evaluations, the organ donation surgeries have been scheduled for the fall.

The number of kidney donations in the United States has been growing, with living donors becoming a larger proportion, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. In 2006, there were 13,617 kidney donors -- 7,181 deceased, 6,436 living. In 1988, there were 5,691 kidney donations, with 3,873 -- about 70 percent -- from deceased donors.

The average wait for a kidney is five to seven years, and in California it's a little longer, said Joel Newman, a network spokesman. There are currently 72,192 candidates on the U.S. waiting list; 15,700 of them are in California.

Newman said part of the growth has been more social acceptance and technologies, which also increase chances for a match. Relatives once were sought because of the higher chances for a match, but that is no longer as important. Still, he said, three-quarters of organs from live donors come from relatives, as they are more likely to donate.

Newman said 95 percent of recipients have a functioning kidney a year after the transplant, and 80 percent still function after five years. He said there have been cases with recipients still having a functioning kidney 30 years after the transplant.

Newman said the risk to donors is low, as is the physical impact in their life.

"Most kidney donors can return to their normal activities within a month," he said.

Schaefer, who has programmed her cell phone to play Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" when Wake calls, said many at the school have raised money and are volunteering to assist Wake while she recuperates.

Wake said she thought being a donor would have a greater physical impact.

"Most people think you're debilitated," she said. "I think I was surprised that a donor could go back to normal."

Reach Eric Louie at elouie@cctimes.com or 925-847-2123.

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