Chain of Love

Chain of Love

How a gift of a kidney transplant in California has linked New Yorkers

BY Julian Kesner

Thursday, February 12th 2009, 4:00 AM
Sabo/News

Paul Hubbard (l.) donated his kidney to Queens-based Leroy Baker (r.). Hubbard's son Evan was also part of the transplant chain.
Anna Maria Berdeja, 59, was the start of the kidney transplant chain. Sabo/News

Anna Maria Berdeja, 59, was the start of the kidney transplant chain.
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Although Staten Island surgeon Richard Batista gave his wife a kidney only to demand she return it — or shell out $1.5 million — in an ongoing divorce battle, there are still many New Yorkers willing to donate the gift of life to a loved one. No fine print or backsies.

When four city residents needed new kidneys, four of their spouses or family members donated one of their own kidneys — to complete strangers.

After lab tests showed their ailing relative would probably reject their own donor organ, the ailing patients and their loved ones turned to the National Kidney Registry — a program that organizes donor chains — to arrange a swap.

The healthy family members would give a kidney to a complete stranger, and in return another stranger would give their loved ones a kidney that tests showed would work.

Three of the four transplant surgeries took place on Feb. 14, 2008, at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell; the fourth, a few months later. This chain of organ donations brought together a true melting pot of Big Apple citizens, who discovered there were strangers out there willing to show them a lot of love.

Ana Maria Berdeja was at one end of this chain reaction. The 59-year-old Hollis, Queens, woman had been on dialysis for three years, having suffered kidney failure due to high blood pressure and diabetes.

“Her kidneys were only working at about 20%,” said her husband Jorge, 61, a cabinet maker who emigrated from Bolivia in 1979. “There were a lot of side effects from the dialysis, and she was very tired and depressed.”

Jorge had already been tested to see if he could give his a wife a kidney, but they were a poor match. (The best organ donor-recipient matches typically have the same blood type, and little to no cellular reaction — i.e., potential for rejection — when the two blood samples are mixed in a “cross match” lab test.)

But Dr. David Serur, medical director of the Rogosin Institute Transplant Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell, and Dr. Sandip Kapur, the hospital’s transplant surgery chief and kidney transplant program director, had been working with the National Kidney Registry. They knew that a California woman named Cindy Marshall had made a standing offer to donate one of her healthy kidneys to someone in need — and Berdeja happened to be a match.

“An altruistic donor unlocks the key to the whole process,” said Kapur. “This is an innovative system to keep people alive.”

The NKR’s “system” meant Marshall’s amazing act of selflessness came with a condition: Jorge Berdeja would have to pay it forward by donating his kidney to someone else in need, who would have to find a relative to do the same. It’s called a “never-ending altruistic donor chain.”

“It was to save the life of my wife, so there was no hesitation,” said Jorge Berdeja. His wife’s diabetes and hypertension disappeared after receiving Marshall’s kidney, and she has the energy to attend church again. Her husband calls it “a miracle.”

Jorge Berdeja’s kidney went to Rubina Parvin, with whom he matched in tests. Originally from Bangladesh and now of Long Island City, the 33-year-old mother of three had been on dialysis about 18 months after being diagnosed in a hospital emergency room with kidney failure. “That was the worst day in my life,” recalled Parvin. “I was crying, I couldn’t believe it. My husband went home with our children, and I stayed in the hospital on dialysis. I thought I was dying.

“My husband said, ‘Don’t worry, I will save you, no matter what.’ ”

Her husband Mohammad Islem, a 47-year-old vendor at Queensboro Plaza and also from Bangladesh, was true to his word. Though both Islem and Parvin had the same blood type, their blood failed the cross match test — so Islem also agreed to give a kidney to a stranger, enabling his wife to anonymously receive Jorge Berdeja’s kidney.

“I had never seen a doctor in my whole life, I was so scared. But, somehow, this situation made me strong,” said Islem. “I am so happy I was able to help my wife and that little boy.”

The little boy in question was 6-year-old Evan Hubbard of the lower East Side, who received Islem’s kidney after his father, Paul, was told he couldn’t give one to his son. Evan was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome at the age of 2, and has been through more in the ensuing years than most people endure in a lifetime: multiple-week hospital stays, seizures, feeding tubes in his stomach, and countless other challenges.

“This little guy is incredible,” said Paul Hubbard, 47, a data clerk. “He loves math and is near the head of his class in school. He’s so brave.”

Getting Islem’s healthy kidney has helped Evan immensely, and his dad didn’t hesitate to keep the donor chain going.

“They asked if me and my wife would be willing to go into this program,” Hubbard recalled. “I said, ‘There’s nothing to talk over. I’ll do it.’ You don’t sign anything — you give your word.”

Ana Maria Berdeja, Rubina Parvin and Evan Hubbard received their new chance at life last Valentine’s Day, with Kapur and Dr. Joseph Del Pizzo removing the three kidneys from the donors and transplanting them in the recipients all in one day. Three months later, Hubbard kept his promise and anonymously donated his kidney, just like Cindy Marshall, Jorge Berdeja and Mohammad Islem.

At the receiving end was Leroy Baker, a former handyman from Springfield Gardens, Queens, who had suffered kidney failure from high blood pressure. “My brother Maurice wasn’t a match with me, but he volunteered to donate,” said the 50-year-old Baker. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have gotten a kidney.”

Maurice Baker, 41, of Brooklyn, kept the chain going by donating a kidney to an anonymous recipient the same day his brother received one.

“Paul and I talk almost every day,” added Leroy Baker. “I feel like a godfather for Evan. Paul gave me life.”

A year after the first transplants, this Valentine’s Day miracle continues to amaze the gift givers and receivers.

Said recipient Rubina Parvin: “We are all family now.”

For more info, on the National Kidney Registry’s donor chain, visit www.kidneyregistry.org.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/02/12/2009-02-12_how_a_gift_of_a_kidney_transplant_in_cal.html