Moved by teen's plight, Oak Brook grandma became a kidney donor

In her online profile, Lita Tomas wrote that she is a "grandmother, age 56," a "nonsmoker," in "excellent physical condition," and "willing to travel."

But the Oak Brook woman wasn't looking for a date. She was offering to donate her kidney.

Tomas signed up with MatchingDonors.com, a nonprofit organization that matches patients needing transplants with living donors.

Weeks earlier, she had been looking for some medical information online when she stumbled on a website set up for a Minnesota teenager desperately ill with kidney failure. Tomas immediately wanted to give him her kidney. She had her blood drawn and sent to Minnesota. "It turns out, I'm nowhere near a match for that poor kid," Tomas said. "That was very heartbreaking for me."

The retired Army major was determined to help someone else.

She turned to MatchingDonors.com, where she read the profile of Ronald Fleming, a 58-year-old retired fire captain from downstate Illinois - and a devoted grandparent like herself.

This time, the blood work showed a match. The transplant was performed May 20 at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis - the 123rd surgery involving a patient and altruistic donor who found each other on MatchingDonors.com.

Tomas met Fleming and his family at a restaurant in Urbana a month before the surgery. "A nice, nice man and a great family," she said.

Inspired by her mother's example, Tomas' younger daughter also has registered to be a donor with MatchingDonors.com.

Giving to others is one of the family's values. At home in Oak Brook, Tomas cares for her older daughter, Jean McNamara, 35, who suffered a traumatic brain injury during her final week of Army officers' training. Before her injury, McNamara was a regular blood and platelet donor and also was on the bone marrow registry.

For Christmas last year, Tomas gave her daughter an empty box and told her "I'm going to donate a kidney for you, because you can't and I know you would love to.

"She said it was the nicest gift she ever got," Tomas said.