Local graduate Nicole (Swanson) Lanstrum donates very special giftJuly 02, 2009 - While being an organ donor is not in itself unusual, the circumstances with 1996 CGHS graduate Nicole (Swanson) Lanstrum were a bit different. She donated a kidney to a complete stranger, but it also triggered a chain of donations at other centers which will restore the lives of many other people because of her generosity.
Lanstrum has never known anyone on dialysis, but is hoping her donation will inspire others in the military to donate. She had wanted to do something to help someone else with no strings attached. "I just feel we're all put on this earth to make it better and no one has the same game plan. I knew this was something that God supports me in," said Lanstrum, who is an Air Force tech sergeant specializing in intelligence analysis and the study of military capability and tactics of foreign countries and terrorist organizations. She is stationed in Tucson, Arizona with her husband George who is also in the Air Force. She has two stepchildren, George and Kayleigh.
Lanstrum had thought about doing this since high school, when she found out that you only need one kidney to live, and had even sought out information from the National Kidney Registry for this purpose. "I first pursued this dream in 2001, but was denied because they would only accept from live donors of close friends or relatives of the recipient and not total strangers," said Lanstrum. Since then, advances in medicine have allowed the procedure to be done laproscopically. It's less invasive and far safer to the donor than the traditional method. More importantly for Lanstrum, it allowed anyone to donate to anyone else in need.
She registered, and then under went a couple months of extensive tests to make sure she was healthy enough to donate. The computer soon matched her with a women named Valinda from Los Angeles. "I only knew that she was a 54 year old nurse who had been on dialysis eight hours a day, every single day, for over five years," said Lanstrum. "If God had not intervened in our lives the way he did, she would still be waiting for a deceased donor's kidney. It's likely she would have waited in excess of a few more years."
The transplant was done June 9th at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and her gift actually set off a chain that freed four other patients at UCLA from lives on dialysis.
According to Enrique Rivero, who is a Senior Media Relations Officer with UCLA Health Sciences, A donor chain creates opportunities for endless donor-recipient pairings. It starts out with, as in Nicole's case, an altruistic donor-- someone who wants to donate simply out of the goodness of their heart. That kidney gets transplanted into a recipient who had a donor willing to give but it was not a match. To keep the chain going, the incompatible donor is matched to another who they don't even know. A specialized computer program is utilized to match donors and recipients from across the country.
Because kidneys can remain outside the body for 24 to 48 hours before transplant, these chains enable donors to give to complete strangers. Nearly 80,000 people are currently on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States. UCLA has now performed three of these chains, having done the very first one back in July of 2008. Overall, transplant chains are considered rare.
"With a living donor the rates of success are three times greater," said Lanstrum. "It couldn't have been a more perfect match. It's still early, but Valinda's new kidney has shown absolutely no signs of rejection. In fact, it's working even better than the doctors expected."
Lanstrum remembers well her feelings both before and after the surgery. "I was anxious to meet Valinda," said Lanstrum. "I learned that we were right next to each other in the pre-operation room, with only a curtain separating us. I asked a nurse to tell her that I can't wait to meet her and am praying that the surgery goes well. The nurse smiled and said that she wanted her to tell me the same. I was both anxious and excited, but not nervous or the least bit apprehensive. When God's behind you, he takes away the worry or fears. That's just what he did for me."
Lanstrum said that the best way to describe her feelings is something like when you know you've found the most perfect Christmas gift for someone and can't wait for them to open it. "It's like that times 1,000," said Lanstrum. "I couldn't wait to wake up from the surgery and find out how my recipient was doing." She admits that even though her husband was a nervous wreck during the procedure, he was always supportive of her decision. "I never would have been able to do it without that," said Lanstrum. "I am very blessed to have such a wonderful husband."
Lanstrum said that her surgery took almost four hours, along with the same amount of time to do the transplant. "I was told that Valinda's new kidney started working immediately after they removed the clamps," said Lanstrum. "It was one of the happiest moments of my life. That is, until I got to meet her the next day. There wasn't a dry eye in the room then."
Yet another special moment for Lanstrum occurred the afternoon following surgery, when Valinda's 22-year-old son came to visit. "He wanted to thank me for the gift I gave his mother, and with tears welling in his eyes told me that he was not able to be a match for her," said Lanstrum. "He told me that it was hard to believe that I was actually a real person because the whole family kept calling me an angel. I found it difficult to receive such a compliment, but am honored to be so instantaneously loved. I never thought I would gain an entire new family out of the experience."
As to the chain, Lanstrum explained that Valinda's original donor was to be her best friend Sarah. She was a weak match for Valinda, so Sarah agreed to donate her kidney to a stranger in San Francisco. That person is doing well, with her sister now scheduled to donate her kidney to another stranger next month.
The chain has been named the 'Service Before Self Transplant Chain' in honor of Nicole and also one of the Air Force's core values. It is already predicted to be over ten transplants deep, with still no end in sight. It potentially could go on forever.
Lanstrum is almost back to all her normal activities now and is set to return to work July 13th. "With one kidney I will live a completely full and normal life, because you truly need only one," said Lanstrum. "This will affect me in no way other than the obvious. I don't have a spare anymore."
At a June 15th press conference held at UCLA, Lanstrum was given the 'Everyday Hero' award from UCLA and the City of Los Angeles. She admits that while it was quite an honor, her real reward is in knowing what a difference she made in one family's life forever.
"I merely wanted to do something nice for someone else," said Lanstrum. "I can say that this has been the most fulfilling experience of my life, and can honestly say that I am just as blessed as Valinda. The sacrifice is so minute in comparison to the gift you can give someone else. When you share love with others, there's no greater feeling on this earth."
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