Saving a child
City school board member becomes kidney donor for 7-year-old
It was 11 p.m. on May 17, and Ghadah Makoshi was awake and working when a message arrived from an acquaintance. Moira Kaleida, a Pittsburgh Public Schools board member, asked if it was a good time to talk. She said she had news that couldn’t wait: She had seen Ms. Makoshi’s plea on Facebook seeking a kidney for her son, and she was a potential match.
A suitable donor for 7-yearold Laith Dougherty had yet to emerge before Ms. Kaleida revealed she been privately pursuing the process to determine if she was one. By June 2, the school director and 7-year-old were preparing for surgery. A week later, they met and compared scars.
“I thought if it were my kid, I’d want to know someone was out there trying,” Ms. Kaleida said.
“It’s shocking to me because I had only met her once or twice,” Ms. Makoshi, of Squirrel Hill, said. “It’s sacrifice to say, ‘I’m going to go through surgery and pain to make sure your kid survives.’ Most people wouldn’t do that.”
Laith had already undergone two heart transplants, one when he was 3 months old and another when he was 3 years old. But in 2012, a test showed the boy’s kidneys were working at only 35 percent capacity.
His mother said he caught a series of viruses last fall and winter, likely at school, and was sick “nonstop” until February, with his kidneys failing. Doctors said the organs were functioning at 8 percent, and that fell to just 6 percent by spring, forcing him to go on dialysis until a replacement kidney became available.
Although kidney donor lists tend to prioritize children, B
blood types like Laith’s generally have longer wait times because that classification is so uncommon in North America, said Abhi Humar, chief of transplantation at UPMC. Generally, he said, kidney recipients could wait between six months to two years for a donor organ.
Neither Ms. Makoshi, her husband Josh Dougherty, nor her sister could supply one. Extended family across the country offered to help but couldn’t come to Pittsburgh for the required testing.
Ms. Kaleida, 32, of Beechview, happened to fall within a small subcategory of A blood types that Laith could accept.
“It was lucky for us and Laith,” said Dr. Humar, who performs all kidney transplants at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and said it’s not unusual to see a donor offer one to an acquaintance.
“More and more, we tend to see donors are that maybe friends of friends, and they’ve heard their story, or they have something else in common.”
And Dr. Humar said all signs are positive at this point in the boy’s recovery.
“He did well after this transplant. He’s a complicated patient, him more so than others . ... The kidney worked immediately and has been continuing to work very well,” Dr. Humar said.
Ms. Kaleida is not Ms. Makoshi’s representative on the school board, but the two share several mutual friends, a passion for education — and now they share a distinct bond. Ms. Kaleida, the mother of two young daughters, called her decision a “no-brainer” and credited her family and a group of charitable mothers, who offered food, child care and rides, with helping her through.
“It really doesn’t affect my everyday life beyond the couple of weeks of recovery. But for him, it’s something that changes his life drastically,” she said.
Both are recovering well nearly two months after the surgery.
On a recent weekday, Laith was playing Pokemon Go on his mom’s phone — perhaps the best proof that he’s feeling like any other 7year-old boy.