Photo: Thomas McGinnity and his daughter Jennifer Gasperoni. (Crista Jeremiason / PD)
Two years ago on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Thomas McGinnity and his wife Pamela were out Christmas shopping, when pain erupted in his neck. Wrapped around the curve of his spine, a malignant tumor had just shattered several vertebrae.
Less than a week earlier, McGinnity, 60, had undergone the medical examinations to become a kidney donor for his daughter, Jennifer Gasperoni, 31. All of his lab work yielded good results, except a chest x-ray that exposed an unusual spot his lung.
A few days later, doctors told him he had stage four lung cancer and less than six months to live.
While McGinnity’s tumor grew, his daughter’s kidney function dropped dangerously below 15 percent. Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, hope looked dire for the Santa Rosa family, but then by an extraordinary turn of events, they overcame and survived.
“It was a total shock,” said Pamela McGinnity, 59. “Everything came crashing down in a single week. It felt never-ending and kept moving so fast, but we just kept hoping and praying. We never gave up.”
The August before her father’s diagnosis, Gasperoni went on peritoneal dialysis, a last resort treatment that temporarily sustains a person’s kidneys until an organ transplant is available.
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
No comments:
Post a Comment