Riverside woman perfect match for friend in need of kidney

10:59 PM PDT on Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Riverside woman perfect match for friend in need of kidney

By IMRAN VITTACHI
The Press-Enterprise

RIVERSIDE - Robert Maharaj and his wife, Gina, became desperate after the blood tests of 30 relatives and friends did not bring a match for a new kidney for Gina, Robert said.

But a "miracle" -- as Robert Maharaj put it -- materialized Monday when newfound friend Sylvia Barraza, 37, donated her left kidney to his 40-year-old wife in an operation at Riverside Community Hospital's Transplant Center. It was the center's 11th transplant this year involving a living organ donor.

"You can never thank people enough," Maharaj said with tears in his eyes Tuesday as he visited Sylvia Barraza at her hospital bed. "I feel blessed that at least my wife can live to see our child grow up."

Robert Maharaj said his wife was recovering in the intensive care unit and was too sedated to talk.

Gina urgently needed a new kidney because of health complications that lingered nine years after she lost a fetus in her womb 20 weeks into pregnancy, Robert Maharaj said. After losing her first child back in 1998, Gina fell into a coma that lasted three weeks, he said.

Robert Maharaj and Sylvia Barraza's husband, Robert, met at a neighborhood barbecue several years ago in Riverside, but they became reacquainted after the Barrazas enrolled their 6-year-old son, Robert Jr., at John F. Kennedy Elementary School at the start of the school year.

Robert Jr. was enrolled in the same class with the Maharajs' daughter, Alexyss.

The two fathers became close friends and eventually introduced their wives to one another.

The two women hit it off "like fireworks on the Fourth of July," said Robert Barraza, who wore an Angels cap and T-shirt Tuesday as he sat by his wife.

Sylvia Barraza said she volunteered to go in for a test this spring and came up a perfect match. She said she believed it was a calling from God. Both couples are devout Christians.

"What are the chances of little old me being a match?" Sylvia said Tuesday. "I never thought it would be possible."

Gina teaches first grade at Foothill Elementary School in the Alvord Unified School District. Last Friday, her students and colleagues gave her a going away party because they knew she wouldn't be coming back to school for several months, Robert Maharaj said.

Saturday -- the day before the women checked into the hospital -- Sylvia celebrated her 37th birthday.

The two women have been active parents at Kennedy Elementary by helping out with donations of supplies to their childrens' classroom, said teacher Phyllis Kirkemo.

On Tuesday, Kirkemo's class worked on making "get well" cards for Gina and Sylvia.

"As a school we're just so pleased that we have such a strong school community that could put together a group of parents that would be this unselfish," Kirkemo said . "How these kids could be placed in the same classroom and one parent ends up being a donor for another parent is just remarkable."

Reach Imran Vittachi at 951-567-2404 or ivittachi@PE.com

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