Donates

Published by The National Herald, November 19, 2004

Astoria Woman Donates Kidney To Ailing Columbia Student

But the world has heroes. We just need to open out eyes. For all we know, a hero might just be living right next door.

Chrysoula Zikopoulos of Astoria is one such hero. She recently donated one of her kidneys to a young man who was suffering from kidney failure. And she did it because she understood not only his need, buit also his pain. She has herself suffered great pain, but she converted the experience to an act of sacrifice.

Her physician, Dr. Dennis Fowler at Columbia-Prsbyterian in Manhattan, kept asking her if she really was determined to donate her kidney.

" ‘Do you realize what it is you are about to do,’ he asked me," she recalled during an interview with The National Herald.

Mrs. Zikopoulos, 55, recently donated one of her kidneys to George Pappas, a 27-year-old Greek student.

"The doctor told me, ‘you’re going to be giving away a part of your body, which you will never get back.’ I said ‘okay, I’ve made up my mind. Let’s proceed,’ " she said.

Mrs. Zikopoulos lived through some harrowing moments a few years ago, when she tragically lost her son, Demetri, then a 16-year-old cancer survivor, in a car crash (her daughter, Eleni, lives in Astoria and has two children.)

After the accident, she said, she was watching a show broadcast on a local Greek television about Sloan-Kettering Memorial Cancer Center and decided to volunteer their.

It was at Sloan-Kettering that she first met George in 1992. Then a young boy, Pappas had come to the US to be treated for a rare form of cancer. They became friends, but their paths soon separated when George went back to Greece.

By a stroke of luck a few years later, Mrs. Zikopoulos said she visited the Ronald McDonald House Greek Division for cancer-stricken children in Manhattan.

"I heard a Greek mother say that George Pappas was back in New York to study at Columbia University, and that he was looking for a kidney donor," she said. Both of his kidneys had failed as a result of years of extensive chemotherapy.

"I asked for his telephone number here in New York but no one knew it," Mrs. Zikopoulos said.

A few months later, she heard Irene Dracopoulos, director of Hope For Life, a Greek American philanthropic organization, speak on that same local Greek channel. Mrs. Dracopoulos was appealing to community members on behalf of a young Greek patient in urgent need of a kidney. The young man turned out to be George.

"My thoughts that night were all directed to George," she told the Herald. "I recalled how he never complained, no matter how much pain he was in," she added. "He always had a smile on his face. Even after all of his struggles, he still came back here to study. I thought about his courage and about all the children who, for years and years, fight for their life, and how many times you just can’t do anything to help them. Except this time, I thought I just might be able to do something."

And so she did. Mrs. Zikopoulos called Mrs. Dracopoulos at Hope for Life’s offices and asked that her name be placed on the donors’ list. Soon thereafter, she met with Mr. Pappas and his mother and tried to elevate their hopes.

A few months later Mrs. Zikopoulos and the other two potential donors, George’s parents, were at Columbia Hospital for a compatibility test. A week later, Mrs. Zikopoulos, not the young man’s parents, turned out to have the most compatible organ.

"For three months, they kept testing me, both physically and psychologically," she told the Herald.

Finally, Mrs. Zikopoulos and George went to surgery. She said she was operated on for two hours, but George’s body was a different case. "It took the doctors 12 hours to transplant my kidney into him," she said.

Finally, the operation, which was conducted this past September 17, was completed.

"Our kidneys matched like brother and sister," Mrs. Zikopoulos said. While still in the operating room, she asked the doctors to roll her bed next to George, grabbed his hand and said, "nenikikamen," using the triumphant call of Phidippides which translated means, "we have won."

Three days after the operation, Mrs. Zikopoulos was back at home and on her feet. She said she experienced minor pain and was not taking any medication.

"The moral satisfaction one gets when he or she gives something to another person can not be described," she said.

This past Sunday, November 14, Mrs. Zikopoulos was honored at Hope for Life’s Annual Dinner Dance, held at Zodiac restaurant in Astoria.

"We must always keep in mind that life is unpredictable, and that even the slightest gesture of could might mean so much to someone who is suffering," Ms. Zikopoulos told a packed room.

Mrs. Dracopoulos called the honoree a "hero" and presented her with an icon of the Theotokos (i.e., the Virgin Mary) and a large bouquet of flowers.

"She saved another human being and is an inspiration to us all," Mrs. Dracopoulos said.

Although George was unable to attend the event last Sunday, his mother, Amalia was there. Mrs. Pappas was overwhelmed with emotion. She was choking back her tears and literally could not speak. Instead, a close family friend spoke of the Pappas family’s "deep gratitude."

Now Ms. Zikopoulos and George Pappas are considering the possibility of establishing an organization of organ donors and transplant recipients to help people deal with similar trauma, and also to help educate others about organ donation.

"Ignorance breeds fear, Mrs. Zikopoulos told the Herald. "Helping others is simple. You can save another person and only a little pain."

Editor’s Note: To contact Hope For Life, call 718-956-7559. For Mrs. Zikopoulos, call 718-777-5544 or e-mail her at czikopoulos@earthlink.net For George Pappas, call 212-749-1528 or e-mail him at geopap988@cs.com.



Volume 6 Number 47 - Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY