View video of a kidney donor who helped a member of her "military family”
January 18, 2016
IN THE NEWS: When Patricia Lovenstein found out that Frank Maggelet, who had served in the Coast Guard with her husband five years ago, needed a kidney transplant, she knew that she would be the donor. Since the summer of 2015, she had felt a calling to donate to someone in need.
In October she found out that Maggelet, a member of her “military family,” was suffering from polycystic kidney disease and needed a transplant. Lovenstein immediately knew he was the one.
It didn’t matter that she was still living in New Hampshire, and Maggelet and his family had moved to Diamond Bar in 2011. Lovenstein made the 3,000-mile trip without hesitation. On Jan. 12, Dr. Hirohito Ichii removed her kidney and then Dr. Clarence Foster transplanted it into Maggelet in an adjacent operating room at UC Irvine Medical Center.
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