Editor's note: Kidney donor Melissa Swanson of Shreveport and recipient Masud Khondoker were reported in good condition today after the transplant surgery in Phoenix. Khondoker's kidney is functioning and he could be released from the hospital by the end of the week; Swanson is scheduled to be released on Wednesday and return to Shreveport a week after that, her bosses at The Times said.
Melissa Swanson has a heart of gold.
And speaking of organs, on Tuesday, she will have one less kidney. She will have donated the other to a man who one month ago she had never met.
The 32-year-old mother of four -- two sons and two stepsons -- is donating one of her kidneys to an Arizona man she heard about this past spring on a living-donors website.
"Living with one kidney is not that big of a deal," Swanson said. "It doesn't really affect your life in a major way, so there wasn't any reason for me not to do it."
Swanson found out about Masude Khondoker, 44, of Phoenix, on a living-donors website. The two shared compatible blood types and he needed a kidney.
"How can I not save this person when I know he's dying and I have an extra part," said Swanson, an employee of The Times newspaper in Shreveport.
Khondoker, a native of Bangladesh, came to the United States 25 years ago. The electrical engineer and father of 4- and 11-year-old sons undergoes dialysis four times a day.
"He's constantly hooked up to a machine all day long for two hours at a time," Swanson said. "It really got to me and I thought, how horrible would it be for them to lose their father at that age. I can't imagine how my kids would handle it."
Swanson contacted Masude's wife and last month flew to Arizona to undergo pre-surgery tests.
Swanson, whose husband is in the Air Force and is deployed overseas, left Shreveport Sunday morning. The transplant is scheduled for Tuesday.
"To me, I'm not just helping the man, I'm helping his whole family," Swanson said. "I'm helping two children and a father and a wife and the entire family affected. All I want out of it is for him to be OK and the kids to have their dad back."
Swanson said the inspiration for her to donate her kidney came from Ethan Powell, the 16-month-old Shreveport boy who died of leukemia in April. Ethan's fight for life was well chronicled in a web site.
