The spirit of giving life

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The spirit of giving life
One man's decision to forgo a kidney set in motion Northern California's first donor chain, forever changing three Valley families

By Joe Goldeen
Record Staff Writer
July 10, 2009 6:00 AM

STOCKTON - Northern California's first kidney donor chain that started just over a week ago with four surgeries at University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center and saved the life of Stockton's Laura Amador, 27, has an all-Central Valley cast of characters.

All four patients are now home. The two kidney recipients, Amador and Kirk Larson of Elk Grove, have shown no signs of rejection. And the two donors, Max Zapata of Clovis and Paul Amador of Stockton, are up and recovering well after the June 25 procedures.

Zapata - the man whose offer sparked the beginning of the donor chain - is the 50-year-old altruistic donor who stepped up to donate one of his healthy kidneys to a complete stranger, which happened to be Laura Amador.
To Learn More

People interested in learning more about kidney donation should contact the UCSF Medical Center Kidney Transplant Center at (415) 353-1551 or the National Kidney Registry at www.kidneyregistry.org.

Laura Amador is an athlete and a graduate of Lincoln High, San Joaquin Delta College and San Francisco State University with a degree in psychology. Wegener's granulomatosis, an uncommon disease in which the blood vessels are inflamed, led to organ damage, and her kidneys failed, requiring three-hour dialysis treatments three days a week and the need for a transplant.

Laura Amador's brother, Paul, 24, a railroad worker, offered one of his kidneys but was not a compatible donor. With Zapata's offer of a compatible kidney, officials with the UCSF Kidney Transplant Center asked Amador if he would be willing to donate to a stranger whose designated donor likewise was incompatible. He jumped at the chance.

"I have been waiting about four years to do this. ... I want to tell more people about this," Paul Amador said. "I want to dedicate my Facebook to help people understand this. I want the whole world to know that one person giving a kidney to a total stranger can change multiple families. It starts a chain reaction."

His donated kidney is providing new life for Larson, 45, who works for the California Department of Water Resources as a geologist. Larson's wife of two years, Teresa, 53, expects to get a call soon to return to UCSF Medical Center to have one of her kidneys removed for transplant to a compatible stranger.

Zapata, a longtime department manager for Vons supermarket in Clovis and described as a very modest, kind man, was home by Monday, recovering.

"I'm really glad to have been put in a situation where I could do something like this. It's been a wonderful experience all the way around," said Zapata, the father of five and grandfather of five.

He first had an experience with kidney transplants when a nephew had a successful operation several years ago.

"It kind of tugged at my heart then," Zapata said. About a year ago, a statement printed on his paycheck stub encouraged employees to consider donating blood and tissue. Zapata felt compelled to do something, but said he procrastinated until he saw the message again. At that point, he went into a Clovis hospital and picked up some information about becoming a donor. That led to contact late last summer with the UCSF Kidney Transplant Center.

"I always told people 'God has a way of dealing with me when he wants me to do something.' I thank God every day he's allowed me good health," said Zapata, who does a lot of Christian outreach ministry with youth, juvenile delinquents, prisoners and seniors.

With the Amadors fully committed to the donor chain, UCSF determined that Paul's kidney was a match for Larson.

Larson's kidney troubles started in 1984, when as a college student at Wittenberg University in Ohio, he was afflicted with a form of nephritis that inflamed his kidneys.

He received a kidney from his father, but it gave out in 2008 after 14 years, about average for the length a transplanted kidney will work, Larson said.

"We first were told about an altruistic donor maybe two months ago. We were told the chances were good, but we tried not to think about it much because the potential for it falling apart was great. It was only about a week before the surgery on June 25 that we knew it was looking good," he said.

"We really knew nothing about this before, and Kirk has needed a kidney for several years. You think if you can't find someone who matches you perfectly that you are out of luck, but that is no longer the case," said Teresa Larson, who grew up in Oakland.

"This is really a wonderful program that opens up this process to so many more people. This is so valuable, maybe it will spur people into looking into it."

Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com.

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