LONDON — A 10-year-old Israeli girl has received lung transplants from her mother and a British man who had read of her plight in a London Jewish newspaper.
Russian-born Lisa Ostrovsky, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, was in critical but stable condition at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis following surgery last week.
Lisa, who immigrated to Israel with her parents when she was 1, underwent the life-saving, 6-hour transplant on Tuesday of last week after lung lobes were donated by her mother, Valentina Kurdumov, and Ron Johnson, a 48-year-old British janitor.
The condition of both donors, who underwent the procedure at St. Louis’ Barnes-Jewish Hospital, was described as serious but stable.
It had been hoped that Lisa would receive a lung transplant from someone who had just died.
But when her condition deteriorated, an urgent appeal for a living donor was sent over the Internet, where the London Jewish News picked up the story.
Lisa’s father, Ilia Ostrovsky, an ecologist who deals with water-quality issues in the Sea of Galilee, spearheaded the campaign to publicize his daughter’s condition and to raise funds for the operation.
“We want her to have a normal life. We want her to run and swim and breathe normally. We just want to give her a chance,” he told the London newspaper.
An Israeli insurance company and the Israeli Cystic Fibrosis Association provided $300,000 toward the procedure, which is expected to cost between $750,000 and $1 million.
Ostrovsky’s global e-mail campaign also caught the attention of Rabbi Kalman Packouz of Jerusalem’s Aish HaTorah and Rabbi Levi Cunin, director of the Chabad Center in Malibu, Calif., who broadcast Lisa’s plight on their own e-mail lists to more than 210,000 people.
Individuals in North America set up sites on the Web and grassroots fund-raising campaigns on Lisa’s behalf.
So far these efforts have generated more than $160,000 in Israel, the United States and Canada, and a pledge by one donor to cover the balance of funds not raised elsewhere. Moreover, in addition to Johnson, 20 people from around the world offered to serve as lung donors.
Cystic fibrosis is a congenital childhood disorder in which the glands of the body secrete fluids that are abnormally sticky and may cause obstruction of the lungs, intestines and, more rarely, liver. Transplant is a last resort.
Of a total of 233 pediatric lung and heart-lung transplants performed at St. Louis Children’s Hospital since 1990 — including 29 living-donor lung transplants — the overall one-year survival rate is 77 percent, according to the hospital.
The longest-surviving pediatric lung transplant patient had the surgery eight years ago.
Before leaving for the United States, Johnson, who is married and has two teenagers, told the London Jewish News he had read about Lisa’s plight in a copy of the paper he picked up at his local supermarket.
“Even though I am not Jewish, I am interested in the Jewish community,” he said. “When I read Lisa’s story, I knew I couldn’t help financially but I realized I could donate my lung.”
His decision surprised Johnson’s family, but his resolve was firm.
“I wanted to put something I had into another life,” he told the paper. “There is a Jewish saying that if you save one life, you save the world.”
He said that even though he had a modest education, “I can save the world.”
Packouz, who flew from Miami to be with the family in St. Louis, said that when Johnson and Ilia Ostrovsky met, they embraced for several moments in silence.
Speaking from his daughter’s bedside in St. Louis just before the operation, Ostrovsky said it was “difficult to believe that someone we have never met could do this, but there are a lot of good people all over the world.
“How can you ever thank someone who extends the gift of life as he has done?”
The operation was scheduled for yesterday but was pushed forward when Lisa’s doctors concluded that she was unlikely to survive until then.
Prior to the surgery, Packouz said Ilia Ostrovsky asked Lisa if she was afraid. “No,” she responded, “I’m not afraid.”
Contributions to aid Lisa, her mother and Johnson can be made to the Israel Endowments Fund, 317 Madison Ave, Suite 607, New York, NY 10017. Note on check the donation is for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Israel/Lisa Ostrovsky.