MOM’S GREATEST GIFT
In selfless act of love, she donates kidney to save neighbor’s ailing son, 9
Veronica Sarmiento was the perfect stranger.
The Queens mother of four never once crossed paths with Faleesha Rahaman, who settled anonymously into their neighborhood four years ago with her sickly 9-year-old son Zaheer.
The undersized boy from Guyana soon needed a life-saving kidney transplant, the latest misfortune in a lifelong struggle with his health. And Sarmiento, with her big heart and matching B-positive blood type, finally introduced herself to Faleesha as the answer to a mother’s prayers.
Two months after the moms first met in the playground at P.S. 108, little Zaheer Rahaman and fast friend Sarmiento are recovering from the successful April 23 transplant surgery at the Mount Sinai Hospital’s Recanati/Miller Transplant Institute.
Within days, the secondgrader was “playful, happy, comfortable,” said Dr. Corinne Benchimol, a pediatric nephrologist at Mount Sinai hospital. “I think he’s going to do well. He should do fine.”
Veronica, who returned to her job with the city at the beginning of the month, said there was little internal debate before she offered her kidney to a child she had never met.
“When I found out that it was a little boy that needed help, I put myself in his mom’s shoes,” recalled Sarmiento, 38, who learned of Zaheer’s dangerous medical predicament through a school flyer soliciting possible donors.
“If my child was sick, I would be devastated and I’d want somebody to help,” she said. “It’s just one of those things. You just give back, because you can. It’s something you can do.”
Faleesha Rahaman, 37, recalled how shocked and thrilled she was when Sarmiento shared her decision — particularly since it typically takes 7 to 8 years to find a donor kidney.
“I was through the roof,” said Rahaman, herself the mother of four. “It was a miracle, after going through all of this. We’re all here for her. She’s an incredible woman.”
Zaheer’s health woes began at birth, when he arrived with an obstruction in the tubes used to carry urine from the bladder. When a botched laser surgery in the family’s native Guyana caused more harm than good, the family brought the boy to Trinidad -— the next stop as an increasingly desperate Faleesha sought a solution to Zaheer’s worsening woes.
“He was on a death path,” recalled Faleesha. “He was just sleeping. He didn’t know where he was.”
Doctors concocted a crude solution, connecting the boy’s urinary tubes directly to his abdominal wall so Zaheer could urinate through the artificial search of a real medical answer, enrolling their children in the local public school. But Faleesha and Veronica never so much as bumped into each other until four years later, with Zaheer’s life on the line.
On the day when the boy and Sarmiento were wheeled into surgery, Faleesha — with tears running down her cheeks —wrapped the donor in a hug.
“You told mommy it’s going to be fine?” Sarmiento asked Zaheer. “We’ve got a lot of things to do today.”
More hugs, kisses and tears followed from Zaheer’s parents before their son left for the operation.
“Are you OK?” his mother asked in a soft voice. “Are you all right?”
He was. Minutes later, before disappearing to receive his new organ, Zaheer gave his parents a one-word farewell: “Bye!”
Sarmiento didn’t tell her husband or kids about her decision until after she was evaluated as a possible donor and then approved as a match for Zaheer. The family was less than thrilled by her choice.
“He thinks I’m crazy,” she said with a laugh, gesturing at her husband Flavio. “He said, ‘Get your head checked when you’re in there.’”
According to Dr. Ron Shapiro, who put the donor kidney into Zaheer, the organ comes with roughly a 50% chance of lasting for 20 to 30 years. He noted there are roughly 20,000 kidney transplants per year in the U.S., a relatively low figure.
“We could do more,” he said, “if we had more kidneys to implant.”
Rahaman envisions a future where her rejuvenated son can enjoy all the things long missing from his life: Dancing. Playing outside. Going to the gym.
“His life is going to change to be normal, like his brothers and sister,” the happy mother said. “Now he’s going to be able to to do all of those things.”