Gift is ‘epitome of sisterhood’
One nun donates her kidney to help another, reinforcing that even in this troubling world, there are better angels among us.
Sister Lynn Patrice Lavin needed an angel.
She didn’t have to look far. The nun, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, had been dealing with kidney failure for years. Then, in March 2019, doctors informed her she was fast approaching Stage Five renal failure. Her only options were to begin undergoing dialysis or undergo a kidney transplant.
After extensive testing, she learned she was a candidate for a transplant. Now all she needed was a donor. Without a living donor, the wait would be three to seven years.
Sister Lynn didn’t have that much time.
After making the difficult decision to go forward, Sister Lynn began reaching out to family and friends. She also, naturally, reached out to her religious community for emotional support.
“It was a difficult decision for me,” Sister Lynn admitted. “Asking for help from others is not an easy thing to do, but the reality of the situation was overwhelming.”
This was not her first medical challenge. Both Sister Lynn and her blood sister Trish had been diagnosed with cancer in 2018. She lost her sister to Stage 4 lung cancer. At the same time, she was dealing with the recovery from a full hysterectomy, a result of her own battle with uterine cancer.
The last thing she needed was more medical woes. She needed an angel.
Meet Sister Debbie Krist. “From the time I learned that Lynn’s kidney disease had worsened and that she was in need of a new kidney, I wanted to give her this gift,” Sister Debbie said.
Of course, wishing or wanting is a long way from being a compatible donor. But Sister Debbie said she felt it in her heart that she was destined to help her friend, fellow sister and mentor.
Sister Debbie filled out the living donor form for the Transplant Institute. As the grueling background testing processed, both sisters were heartened when they were told things looked “promising.”
Even for two women of faith, this leap of faith took on the surreal feeling of something that was meant to be.
On. Oct. 30, during a sixhour surgery Sister Debbie’s left kidney was removed and transplanted into Sister Lynn.
Today, five months later, both nuns are back at work. Sister Debbie, the former principal of Our Lady of Angels Regional School in Morton, currently works at the Sister of St. Francis motherhouse in Aston as director of mission advancement. Sister Lynn, previously the Provincial for the Southern Province of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and president of the congregation, now has a private counseling practice in Delaware.
She now carries three kidneys, the two of her own that failed, and the one from Sister Debbie that saved her life. She will take anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life, but otherwise feels well.
She also feels a tremendous sense of gratitude, as well as the natural wonderment of just how you repay someone who makes that kind of sacrifice.
“How do you thank someone for giving you life?” asked Sister Lynn.
She found an answer in their common calling, the sisterhood that will forever bond them, in addition to a shared kidney.
“What Debbie did for me is the epitome of sisterhood,” Sister Lynn said. “There is a blessing that comes with being vulnerable. We are living in a world of exchange and it not always easy to receive, but I have given an incredible gift.”
In their own way, the sisters also have given us all a gift.
We live in troubling times. We now live under the cloud known as coronavirus that seems to intrude on our lives a bit more each day.
Sister Debbie and Sister Lynn leaned on their faith, their family – and each other – and found a solution to a daunting medical issue.
“We know that many people were praying for us both through this process,” said Sister Lynn. “And how fortunate we are to belong to a community of sisters who stood by us every step of the way.”
Reinforcement that even in this troubling world, there are better angels at work among us.