Cheers For Charity

On June 3, the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club will raise their glasses at the annual Cheers for Charity gala. This year, the fundraising will focus on hiring female teachers for a school in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, built by the club in 2004. Rotary member Fary Moini had the idea for the school while volunteering in refugee camps in the aftermath of 9/11. A trained nurse who speaks Farci, Moini worked with displaced Afghan women and children, helping them obtain basic needs like blankets and hot water. After that experience, she returned home, determined to build a school for those children. Moini and other Rotary members devoted their time and talents to the project. Now, the school has been up and running for over two years, and is at capacity with nearly 2,000 students. However, too few female teachers means that many young girls are dropping out as early as 3rd grade, since cultural norms don't allow girls to have male teachers. With girls leaving school so young, future generations won't have the female teachers they need, either. The Rotary aims to break this cycle by hiring more female teachers. The cost of a new teacher only amounts to $60 a month - the price of one ticket to Cheers for Charity.

Cheers for Charity will raise money for this cause, as well as Rotary's numerous other service projects. Rotary supports many educational projects, including UCSD's Preuss charter school and the Monarch school for homeless teens. Rotary is also involved with renovating a low-income seniors home in San Diego, and sending a mobile surgical team to Mexico. Tickets to Cheers for Charity can be purchased, and donations made, online. (619/260-4686, www.lajollagtrotary.org) - JJ Hall

Victoria Popa:
Teenage Triumph

Five years ago, Victoria Popa was 13 years old and enjoying her usual summer vacation in Alaska, where her father owned a commercial fishing business. Swelling began in her thumb, moved to her wrist, and then up her arm. When she returned home to San Diego, she began to take pain medication for what doctors then thought was juvenile arthritis.

But the pain increased and the swelling hopped to different parts of her body. Numerous blood tests followed, along with visits to Children's Hospital and Health Center. The tests revealed internal bleeding, but they didn't know the source. Popa was hospitalized for more tests and a lung biopsy, and the doctors continued their quest for a true diagnosis. Test results pointed to pulmonary hemosiderosis, a lung disorder in which bleeding into the lungs leads to abnormal accumulation of iron, which causes anemia and lung damage.

"The doctors put me on prednisone, a steroid medication that gave me a puffy face and an extra 15 to 20 pounds," recalls the petite 18-year-old. "The trouble is," she laughs, "I'm a girl just like Nicole Ritchie, fashion and my physical appearance are very important, so I felt really self-conscious."

For 18 months she struggled with her puffy appearance and self-consciousness, but the pain and bleeding stopped. When she visited her rheumatologist in September 2003, she thought she had the flu. "My blood pressure was high and it was suggested I have more blood tests. Later, I remember sitting at school with friends when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was my mom. I knew by the look on her face something was really wrong and I grew hysterical."

The doctor informed Popa's mother that there were serious problems with her daughter's kidneys and she must return immediately for hospitalization. Crying and shaking, Popa and her mother returned home to pack a bag. The next morning she had a kidney biopsy and received a warning that in rare cases, bleeding complications could occur. "In my case the bleeding wouldn't stop because my kidneys were so badly inflamed and large," she reports in a clinical tone. Aggressive drug treatment followed.

"I'll never forget that weekend before my 16th birthday when doctors told me that my kidneys were 90 percent non-functional." She looked sick, felt sick, was losing weight, and was in great pain. The doctor prescribed morphine, which caused a severe allergic reaction requiring additional medication to counter it. By her bedside day and night, her parents nurtured and empowered their daughter through the painful ordeal, which included the insertion of a chest catheter for dialysis. "I'd never seen my father cry," Popa says, "but now I watched his tears."

For her 16th birthday she got the puppy she'd always wanted, "a little white Bijon called Jolie," she says. "Once, she was smuggled into my hospital room and that really kept me going." Popa remained in the hospital two and a half weeks and then returned every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for dialysis. This was her routine for the next year and a half, and it included a very restrictive diet. "It was tough and I craved more personal freedom," says Popa. "I wanted to go out with friends and spend longer time in Alaska so, I exchanged my chest catheter for one in the stomach." This allowed her to hook up her dialysis machine at home.

In February 2005, Popa received a short telephone message from her doctor asking to call her back. "I love Dr. Benador," she says, "she is like a second mother to me, and I thought I was in trouble because I'd been cheating on my diet." Popa returned the call from school. "When Dr. Benador said she had a potential kidney donor for me I just sank to the floor and started crying."

Back home and on standby for the call that could change her life, Popa gathered with her family and friends. Hours passed until the phone rang. The voice on the other end apologized. Popa would not be receiving the kidney because it was not a good match.

"I felt mad and sick of having a tube in my belly so I rang Dina, the transplant coordinator. She calmed me, told me not to worry because something would come along. A couple of days later she received a message from a man called David Luino saying he might have a possible donor. I called my nurse to find out who he was. 'He's the head of UCSD transplant,' she replied, 'call your doctor.' I rang Dr. Benador and quickly received confirmation - this is it."

Last February, Popa received her kidney transplant after losing five of her teenage years. Today, this brave and very mature 18-year-old has exchanged her earlier teen dreams of a fashion career for one in medicine. "My experiences at Children's Hospital and particularly with Dr. Benador have impacted who I am. I now want to be a doctor, perhaps a gynecologist or dermatologist," she says with pride.
- Ingrid Hoffmeister, photography by Vincent Knakal

Children's Hospital

Founded: August 19, 1954

Current director: Blair L. Sadler has been president and CEO of Children's Hospital and Health Center for the past 26 years. He will be retiring at the end of this month. Kathleen Ann Sellick has been appointed as Children's president and CEO, effective July 2006.

Mission: To restore, sustain, and enhance the health and developmental potential of children through excellence in care, education, research, and advocacy.

Current funding objectives: To fund expanded facilities/equipment to accommodate increasing demand for services and ensure that we are able to provide care to children without regard of their ability to pay for services.

Biggest challenges: Keeping up with technological advances in medicine (such as state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment tools), California-mandated seismic retrofits, nursing shortages, and growth (need for expanded facilities).

Contact: Kathleen Korn, marketing manager, 858/576-1700, ext. 3161