Former Oakland woman's father donated his organ while in prison

[okarol]

Kidney transplant recipient dies
Former Oakland woman's father donated his organ while in prison

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, March 19, 2007

(03-19) 16:38 PDT -- Renada Daniel-Patterson, who gained public attention 10 years ago when her incarcerated father gave her one of his kidneys, passed away on Sunday, exactly a week before she would have turned 25.

"I was home with her. I was with her when she died. I felt her spirit leave," said her mother, Vicki Daniel, her longtime caretaker. "She had been living on dialysis, and she was really ill."

Formerly of Oakland, Daniel-Patterson and her mother had been living in Atlanta for the past two years.

Born with one unhealthy kidney, Daniel-Patterson underwent her first unsuccessful transplant at the age of 5, when she received a kidney from a cadaver. But she captured national attention in 1996, when she received a replacement kidney from her estranged father, a convict at Folsom Prison whom she had never met. David Patterson reached out to his daughter with a letter offering the organ.

Daniel-Patterson returned to the headlines three years later, after her father's kidney failed and she needed another transplant. Patterson offered his remaining organ, but an ethics panel at University of California at San Francisco Medical Center refused the request, arguing it would shorten his life.

Daniel-Patterson ended up receiving a kidney from an uncle, but that organ also failed within a few years, said Daniel, because her daughter could not physically handle the rigorous anti-rejection medicine and steroids necessary -- the same problem that had contributed to the failure of the kidney donated by her father.

"She was too sick -- they couldn't get the dosages correct, and it would leave her sick. She was tiring out," Daniel explained. "She hung on with dialysis. I was motivating and loving her and doing what I could to take care of her."

Daniel and her daughter moved to Texas in 2002 to take care of Daniel-Patterson's grandparents, who have since passed away. In 2005, the pair moved to Atlanta, where they have family, Daniel said. Recently, David Patterson, who was released from prison in 2003, moved to Alabama, she said, and was able to visit his daughter often.

Despite Daniel-Patterson's long illness, she remained upbeat, making friends when she was a patient at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, reading a lot and watching her favorite television program, the Tyra Banks Show, Daniel said.

"She never forgot a story about other people, and what they were going through. She talked with a lot of people at the hospital," Daniel said. "She talked to patients' families, and she saw a lot of miracles -- I know she was hoping for one herself."

Daniel still has a letter her daughter recently wrote to Tyra Banks, she said, and plans to send it someday.

Daniel-Patterson will be buried this weekend near her grandparents in Port Arthur, Texas, Daniel said. The family has set up a memorial fund to help pay for funeral expenses and transportation to the event.

The fund is at Wells Fargo, under Memorial Fund for Renada Daniel-Patterson, account number 932-244-7682.

E-mail Marisa Lagos at mlagos@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/19/BAG2EONU1912.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

[goofynina]

If the father wanted to give her his remaining kidney and knew the circumstances, they should've done it, what life does he have being incarcerated and all?   Sometimes i just cant understand some people's ways of thinking. 

[Sluff]

It almost seems like they try to figure out how not to allow someone to get a kidney instead of how to.

[angela515]

I don't think anyone should be allowed to donate an organ if it's going to leave them without one, donating both kidneys? Dont think so. My mom tells me all the time how she would give me her otherkidney in a heartbeat if allowed, but I would never allow that. Why would you want someone else to have to go on dialysis so you can get off? I dont see the right in that.