Woman donates kidney to stranger

Woman donates kidney to stranger

NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL | Dominoes line up when a woman decides to donate one of her kidneys to a stranger

November 29, 2008
BY MONIFA THOMAS Health Reporter/mjthomas@suntimes.com

Lisa Schiralli wanted to do something to give back this year. But writing a check to charity or donating clothes "seemed so impersonal," she said.

Instead, the 55-year-old Grayslake woman decided to donate one of her kidneys to a person in need of an organ transplant after reading a magazine article on living donor donations.

Her generosity set the stage for a rare procedure in which three kidney transplants involving three live donors were performed simultaneously at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

In this "three-way domino paired kidney exchange," three donors gave up a kidney, and three people whose kidneys were failing received one.

All six patients, ranging in age from 22 to 65, are doing well after surgery, the hospital said.

Schiralli became the first "domino" to fall into place when she contacted Northwestern this summer about donating to someone she didn't know.

The hospital's transplant team wanted to make the most of her donation, so they looked for pairs where a kidney donor and their intended recipient were incompatible with each other but matched another donor and recipient in the same situation.

Jennifer Gedville, of Vernon Hills, and her father, Barry Lamb, were one of those pairs.

Gedville agreed to give a kidney to Clifton Smith, of Chicago, when she learned her father would get one from Jerry Cole, of Schererville, Ind. And Schiralli's kidney went to Cole's brother-in-law, Lamond Cogdell.

Dr. Joseph Leventhal, one of six transplant surgeons involved in the Nov. 20 procedure, said it's only the second time an altruistic donor has made one of these multi-pair exchanges possible. Earlier this year, doctors at Northwestern did the hospital's first four-way kidney exchange after a transplant nurse at the hospital offered to donate "blindly" to a stranger.

"It's not everyone who is beneficent enough to say I'm going to undergo the knife to give the gift of life to someone," Leventhal said.

Schiralli, who works at Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center, downplayed her role, saying, "I thought it was the right thing to do."

But Gedville and the other patients were full of praise. "You just can't say a big enough thank you," Gedville said. "Without her, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere."

Gedville's father, Barry Lamb, was equally grateful to his donor, Jerry Cole. Without a transplant, Lamb might have spent years on dialysis.

"I still haven't come down from the high," he said.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/1305810,CST-NWS-trans30.article