Boy to go home with teacher's kidney

By Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 9, 2006, 8:48 PM CDT

Eight days after getting a life-saving kidney from his 4th-grade teacher, Brandon Shafer said he was ready to go home and play basketball again.

He was less certain when asked if he looks forward to going back to Oster-Oakview Intermediate School.

After a short pause, he said, "Sort of."

On the day the 10-year-old New Lenox boy was supposed to go home, he stood before a throng of media in something of a bad mood after doctors told him he might not be leaving Children's Memorial Hospital as planned.

But to hospital staff, his family and the teacher whose kidney he carries, Tuesday was only a happy occasion. Just a few months ago, Brandon's future seemed likely to include dialysis. Without a transplant, he would have died.

During a few minutes of a halting question-and-answer session, Brandon, in a black T-shirt, denim shorts and white athletic socks, said he "feels great because I feel a lot better."

The hospital's medical director of kidney transplants, Dr. Richard Cohn, introduced Brandon as "someone who has become a star over these last several months."

Indeed, as word of Brandon's plight and his teacher's kindness spread, the story became national news. A television network flew his family to New York for a live appearance, Miami Heat basketball player Shaquille O'Neal sent a personalized autograph and letters to him and his donor are believed to be en route from President Bush.

Born six weeks premature, Brandon was always small for his age, said his mother, Nandy Shafer, but it wasn't until two years ago that his size was determined to be a result of polycystic kidney disease, which requires a transplant. His mother planned to be a donor but was told her kidneys didn't match. His father was too old, doctors said, and his 12-year-old sister, Kimra, was too young.

After learning her blood type matched the student she simply calls "B," Patsy Donahue, 25, said she never hesitated to go under the knife. On May 1, Donahue had a kidney removed at Northwestern Memorial Hospital that was whisked to Children's and put in Brandon during a more than 3-hour procedure.

Brandon had been saving his allowances to buy an iPod Nano; he decided instead to give it to his teacher so she could listen to it in her hospital bed.

"We'll definitely be connected for life," said Donahue, a New Lenox native who hopes to return to work next week.

Although Donahue was influenced to be a donor by the fact that her father had a life-saving bone marrow transplant, her mother, Barb Donahue, said it was characteristic selflessness. Patsy Donahue spent a year in Guatemala with the Peace Corps (she had to come home for security reasons) and for the last seven summers has volunteered to build houses in Appalachia.

"She's always been doing things like that," Barb Donahue said. "Money is never an issue with her. It's always about what she can do to help."

Cohn said Brandon's recovery is "day by day" and that his body could still reject the organ.

The next three months are crucial, he said, and the first year important. Brandon will need to take medication for the rest of his life—as few as two types are possible if all goes well—and in the short term, needs a low sodium diet, plenty of liquids and light exercise.

Nandy Shafer, who moved to the United States from British Guyana 13 years ago, said it would be difficult to fully thank Donahue.

"There is really no way to repay her," she said. "All we can do is keep Brandon in her life, and she'll always be a part of ours."

By the end of Tuesday, doctors decided Brandon's return home would indeed be delayed as they waited for the last of his 11 medicines to arrive at the hospital. At home, he'll need to take 10 pills and an injection.

Shafer said her son would likely be home Thursday. And whether he likes it or not, back in school Monday.

jbnoel@tribune.com

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/4-0&fp=446147d82d55ac87&ei=hF1hROCvJszyaNPJ-esE&url=http%3A//abclocal.go.com/wls/story%3Fsection%3Dlocal%26id%3D4157313&cid=0

I couldnt stop laughing for 5 minutes after seeing this on the local news.

A new low has been reached.