Yolanda Domingo, left, a heart transplant recipient; Merle Moribe, center, kidney transplant recipient; and Dee Dee Tomihama, right, kidney recipient, are all competing in the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games in Minneapolis, Minn.
Organ recipients
head to GamesThe 12 islanders will compete
in the 2004 Transplant Games
Told in 1998 that she had only a year to live because of an enlarged heart, Yolanda Domingo, 46, "pretty much stayed home and planned my funeral," she said. "I typed up my own obituary."
But the Pearl City mother of three defied predictions.
She lived long enough for a heart transplant on Mother's Day 2000 and began exercising right out of the hospital, walking, lifting weights and biking.
She is one of 12 Hawaii transplant recipients, ages 9 to 65, participating in the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games from Tuesday to Sunday in Minneapolis, Minn.
Martin Hee: Retired firefighter has been to six transplant games since 1992
Others are Ray Agaran Jr., 9; Abby Barsatan-Lorica, 33; Herbert Endo, 65; Martin Hee, 63; Merle Moribe, 61; Calvin Nakamoto, 61; Alfrey Pacada, 40; Rae Dean "Dee Dee" Tomihama, 48; Sandy Webster, 41; Rachel Wong, 32; and Larry Yim, 20.
Two had heart transplants and nine had kidney transplants. Endo's kidney donor, daughter Lucy Dwight, is accompanying him to the games.
Webster, Hee, Barsatan-Lorica, Domingo, Nakamoto, Pacada and Agaran are repeat athletes in the games.
Webster, who has had two kidney transplants, has competed in seven games since 1990. Her next goal is to finish the Honolulu Marathon.
Hee, a retired firefighter, veteran decathlete, and track and long distance coach at Castle High School, has been to six transplant games since 1992. He trained Castle graduate Bryan Clay, who will be competing for Olympic gold in Athens next month in the decathlon.
"Bryan has been a big supporter of me and I've been a big supporter of him," Hee said, calling the 24-year-old's success "a dream come true" for both of them.
"He's world-class. He's going for a world championship. I'm just a survivor."
The National Kidney Foundation expects more than 10,000 athletes in this year's games, including about 2,000 men, women and children who are alive because of organ donors.
"It's such a happy, yet sad, event," Domingo said. "It's just like the Olympics, with an opening ceremony. The touching part is meeting donor families."
Her donor family, Frank and Jesse Ginoza, went with her family to the Olympic-style transplant games two years ago in Orlando, Fla.
Domingo said she is one of four people living because of organs donated from the Ginozas' son Steven. She is attending Leeward Community College with aspirations of doing some kind of work concerning transplants, such as "helping patients through the process or counseling."
Domingo bowled in the 2002 games and will compete in softball throw this year. Other events include badminton, 3-on-3 basketball, cycling, golf, racquetball, swimming, table tennis, singles and doubles tennis, 5K race, track and field, and volleyball.
Hee, participating in the 100-meter dash, high jump, long jump and softball throw, was on dialysis 14 months before receiving a kidney transplant June 8, 1996, the same day that Mickey Mantle received his liver.
He takes 20 pills a day to prevent rejection of the organ, which "takes a toll on the body," he said. But he said: "I just want to be alive. Being ill is no fun."
Hee won gold medals in previous U.S. Transplant Games and World Transplant Games. "I have to take off my hat to our transplant recipients here in Hawaii because we've done really well," he said. "We were very, very successful winning gold medals or placing."
The latest organ recipient on the Hawaii team is Tomihama, who had a kidney transplant Aug. 12 last year after three years on dialysis.
She said her first goal after the operation was to walk in the Great Aloha Run, which she did in two hours and 36 minutes. "I was really, really happy with that," she said. Her youngest son, Nicholas, 14, and her husband, Edwin, walked with her.
She then joined the National Kidney Foundation's Gift of Life Walk in April and won a 24-Hour Fitness membership.
Her goal was to drop 20 pounds before leaving for the transplant games, which she did by working out in the gym or walking three miles a day, she said.
She said her husband, Nicholas and son Brian, 23, go with her to the gym at least three times a week, usually about 10 at night. Bowling also is a family activity about four times a week.
"My whole family has been behind me from the beginning, since I had kidney disease," she said.
Tomihama will compete in singles bowling and the 5K walk/run in Minneapolis. Nicholas also will run the 5K, the only public event, she said. "He's my cheering section as far as bowling goes," she said.
Tomihama said her kidneys began failing from hypertension when she was 25 and "it got out of control a few years when I had no medical insurance."
She was on the waiting list for a transplant before starting dialysis, which she said she stayed off as long as possible. She was diagnosed with a cancerous kidney last year in January, and it was removed before a match was found for her other kidney.
Throughout the ordeal, she said, "I didn't have time to vegetate or feel sorry for myself." She continued to work full-time as office administrator for Dr. Phillip W.S. Chang, uncle of Bryan Clay.
Nine-year-old Ray has been selected to represent Hawaii in the Donor Recognition Ceremony, carrying a heart-shaped board with messages from donor families.
The youngster, who received his kidney in 2002 from his father, Ray Sr., will compete in track and field and children's softball throw events.
Hee said the Hawaii team is always the most popular team at the transplant games. The members want to make Hawaii proud and "spread the aloha spirit," he said.
Organ Donor Center of Hawaii
www.organdonorhawaii.com
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Islanders Await organs
A total of 407 island residents were waiting for life-saving organ donations at the end of June.Of those, 381 were waiting for a kidney, 22 for a liver, three for a heart, two for kidney-pancreas and three for a pancreas. (The total is less than the sums because some patients are included in multiple categories).
Nineteen people had transplants during the first half of this year. Fourteen received kidneys, including seven from living donors. Four received livers and one a heart.
People who want to be organ donors may list that on their driver's license and are encouraged to tell family members of their decision.
Call 599-7630 for more information about organ donation. Neighbor islanders can call 877-855-0603 toll-free.
Source: Organ Donor Center of Hawaii
