A Long Way From Kansas : Toddler Awaits Donor at Irvine Home

She has been to Sea World. She has strolled through Disneyland with Mickey.

If it weren’t for the portable oxygen tank always at her side, 3-year-old Kalana Calkins and her family could easily be confused with vacationers taking in the sights of Southern California.

But the Calkins’ monthlong stay in Irvine--more than 1,000 miles from their home in Lakin, Kan., population 2,300--has nothing to do with rest and relaxation.

It’s been an anxious time marked by uncertainty and false hopes. Kalana is awaiting a double-lung transplant at a Los Angeles hospital, where she requires medical attention every few days.

Because young lung donors are so rare, the Calkinses don’t know when the complicated transplant operation might take place. With a beeper nearby, the family is always on call, ready at a moment’s notice to board a life-flight helicopter to Los Angeles Children’s Hospital whenever doctors find a donor.

“Every night we hope that the beeper will go off and that the transplant will take place tonight,” said Peggy Calkins, Kalana’s mother. “It’s been very frustrating.”

The Calkinses said their odyssey has been brightened by the generosity of friends and strangers--both in Kansas and in Irvine.

The Calkinses have been the house guests of an Irvine couple since June 1, soon after a doctor at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital agreed to perform the transplant on Kalana.

The smiling and wide-eyed girl has partial use of one lung and has endured three open-heart surgeries.

“We had to be within a close distance of the hospital once the donated organ becomes available,” Peggy Calkins said. “So we had to find someplace to stay around here. We didn’t know anyone and anything.”

The residents of Lakin rallied to Kalana’s side, calling friends and relatives in the Los Angeles area in search of someone who could put up the family while they wait for a donor.

Irvine residents Mary and James Young offered to share their home with the family after being approached by a relative from Lakin.

“We have a large house, and they were desperate to find someplace,” Mary Young said. “The Lord has been good to us. If we can help someone in need, why not?”

Doctors at Children’s Hospital said they don’t know when the Calkinses’ wait might end, noting that some patients must stand by for more than a year.

Kalana’s case is rare because the donor lungs must be small enough to fit into her chest cavity and must be of the right blood type, said Felicia Schenkel, a transplant coordinator for the hospital.

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Kalana suffers from congenital heart and lung problems. The lung transplant is believed crucial to her survival, hospital officials said.

Double-lung transplants are becoming increasingly common, and success rates vary from child to child, Schenkel said. If the operation is successful, Kalana would be required to stay on medication for the rest of her life but otherwise “could pretty much do what she wants to do. And knowing Kalana, she will,” Schenkel said.

Nonetheless, the uncertainty over when the operation will occur grates on Roger Calkins, who must return to his job in Kansas at the end of this week. He came to Irvine hoping to be with Kalana when the transplant took place. If a donor is found when he is in Kansas, Roger Calkins doubts he will be able get to Los Angeles in time for the operation.

“I want to be there for her,” he said. “But time is running out.”

In the meantime, the family has tried to stay busy by visiting some of the local attractions and taking walks around Irvine. They hope the difficulty Kalana has experienced in finding a lung donor will prompt other parents to consider registering their children as organ donors.

Though most of Kalana’s medical bills are covered by insurance, Peggy Calkins said her condition has been a financial burden. The pressure to make ends meet has been eased by donations from Lakin residents and by the generosity of the Youngs for providing free housing.

For that, the Calkinses will always be grateful.

“Everyone has been so great,” Peggy Calkins said. “She’s not just our baby. She’s the whole community’s baby.”