Story behind restaurateur's new kidney; friend's decision leads to 3-way swap

[Clark]

http://www.redding.com/news/2011/nov/24/story-behind-restaurateurs-new-kidney/

Story behind restaurateur's new kidney; friend's decision leads to 3-way swap
By Alayna Shulman

Redding restaurateur Jim Gironda has at least one thing in common with a 27-year-old woman he's never met — her kidney.

Gironda, 63, owner of the eponymous Italian eatery on Center Street, had a kidney transplant Nov. 11 at San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center after waiting around 3½ years for a new organ.

But the story behind the swap is an unusual one.

Gironda's longtime friend, John Williams, owner of Sunrise Excavation and Paving in Redding, offered up his kidney, but it wasn't a match.

It did, however, still get Gironda the new organ he needed.

The hospital has a program in which willing donors whose organs don't match their friend's or family member's can enter a pool in the hope that someone else is going through the same ordeal.

This month, two other pairs besides Williams and Gironda found success through the program — and three people have new kidneys thanks to someone they've never even met.

"If you created a mental family tree and included in addition to your family, all your friends, anybody you may work with, those surgeries positively affect thousands of people just from us three getting kidneys," Gironda said. "When you think about that, that's pretty incredible."

The story's not over for the six donors and recipients — they're all meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday.

"I've only seen a picture of her in the newspaper," Gironda said of his kidney donor, Michelle Ratola of Daly City. "We all wanted to meet."

Williams, 65, said he didn't think twice about giving his kidney to whoever might need it, so long as Gironda got one in return.

"Well, it was pretty simple. I had a good friend that needed one," he said. "The goal was that Jim get a kidney, and it really doesn't matter whose kidney it is. Gosh, it feels like I gave a kidney to two people."

From his home Wednesday morning Gironda marveled at Williams' gift.

"It's such a big thing, and it's so overwhelming, and it's so nice there are people in the world like John. I couldn't find the words to thank him," he said, pausing to compose himself. "It must be that female kidney I got."

For more than two years now, Gironda's had to limit his time at the restaurant because of physical therapy.

His wife, Penny, has run the restaurant since then.

"If I wasn't lucky enough to have her, we would have lost everything, especially surviving this downturn of economy we've had," he said. "All I could say is, thank God for her and women like her. Again, it must be my kidney talking."

Thanks to Williams and the other donors in the pool, Gironda said, he's gotten his life back. He plans to return to the restaurant in about a month, and has plenty other plans, too.

"It's going to be a whole new life," he said. "Our youngest is 22. I wanted to be around to see her walk down the aisle, and there was quite a while there I didn't think that would be possible. Now if it's not, it's not because of my kidney."

Gironda also wants to dedicate his free time to educating people about kidney transplants, since he knows firsthand how stressful and confusing the process can be.

"I'm hoping to devote part of my life to helping people get through this process, understand it, and maybe take some of the fear away," he said. "The more you would know, the easier it would be to give. If I could do those things for other people, I'd be thrilled to be able to do it."