Some Kind of Miracle
Published: November 27, 2005
In Stamford, 13-year-old Dayna Sottosanti has become the poster child for organ donation.
One of more than 87,000 Americans on the nation’s organ transplant waiting list, the community rallied around her earlier this summer when her search for a kidney donor became public.
About to enter her freshman year of high school, Sottosanti’s body was reaching the end of its capacity to withstand daily dialysis treatments. [Dialysis : An Unanticipated Journey]
There were no viable donor matches in her immediate family, and soon she would need more drastic, invasive treatment.
Supporters bought black rubber bracelets that read, “Donor for Dayna,” and several of those supporters tested as potential donor matches.
Last month, Sottosanti got a kidney when a designated organ donor suddenly died.
Sottosanti’s recovery has been filled with complications, but she is expected to return to school at Westhill High School next week for the first time in more than a month.
Going back to school will be the first step in a gradual process of returning to a normality Sottosanti hasn’t experienced since she was 5. For the past eight years, she has missed out on what most children take for granted: no after-school playtime and no junk food. Sleepovers came with a clunky machine in tow.
But then a sort of miracle happened. On Oct. 17,her father Dave picked up his cell phone after work to find a message: A donor match had been found and Dayna was at the top of the list, the hospital said. Within hours, the Sottosantis were in the car heading to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital for emergency transplant surgery. [Kidney For Sale By Owner: Human Organs, Transplantation, And The Market]
The next morning, Dayna was on the operating table. Since then, the family has endured an emotional roller coaster. But Dayna, her single father and her three sisters, Rachel, 16, Erin, 12, and Leah, 9, are now closer than ever. Sitting outside the hospital cafeteria the day after the first surgery, Dave’s cell phone bleated insistently; well-wishers, family and friends were on the other end, calling for updates. There wasn’t much news. It would take a few days before it would be clear whether the kidney was working. Dave Sottosanti told callers that the kidney was still “sleeping.” He, however, was not sleeping. He had not slept for four days. He would not fully sleep for another 17 days, catching a nap here and there when family members came to visit.
“It was a lonely 35 hours,” he said of the initial waiting period. “You just sit and wait to get the news.” Word came later that week that the kidney wasn’t taking. Something was wrong, Dave said. The stem between the kidney and bladder had broken away and urine was seeping into her body. They were going to have to operate again.
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