Woman Home After Kidney Transplant

A 30-year-old Ventura County woman who traveled to Mexico to undergo transplant surgery to receive a kidney donated by her sister, has returned to Ojai.

Lourdes Carranza had the surgery performed by a U.S.-trained doctor practicing in her native Guadalajara, where the physician does the surgeries for low-income patients at a fraction of what it would cost in the United States.

The 38-year-old sister, Concha Jiminez, also lives in Ojai and returned to Mexico with Carranza. Both women, who returned Oct. 31, are doing well, Carranza said.

Carranza said she is making arrangements to see at doctor at UCLA.

The operation cost about $35,000, including medication and follow-up visits, Carranza said. Because the operation left her with a weakened immune system, she must take steroids and wear a surgical mask to protect against viruses, she said.

In the months before her surgery, Carranza had become increasingly ill and was told that if she did not receive a new kidney soon, she would face dialysis or even kidney failure.

After learning that a transplant at UCLA Medical Center would cost $160,000 to $200,000, friends suggested she consult UCLA-trained kidney specialist Dr. Angel Gandara in Guadalajara.

Gandara accepted Carranza as a patient, and her siblings flew to Mexico with her to be tested as possible kidney donors.

Carranza can’t afford health insurance but does not qualify for government assistance because of the income level she and her husband, Abel, 31, make at their gardening business.

Family friend Jacqueline LeBourveau, 45, helped set up the Lourdes Carranza Kidney Fund at Ojai Valley Bank and appealed to the community for donations. She and other volunteers sought money from Ojai churches and from individuals, arranged for restaurants to donate proceeds from special dinners and held two garage sales. The effort raised nearly $25,000 to pay for the operation.

When Carranza was a toddler in Mexico, her 13-year-old sister died of renal failure.

The Carranzas have been married nine years and have a 7-year-old son, Alan. They met in Guadalajara after Abel’s graduation from Ojai’s Nordhoff High School in 1987.

Carranza, who wants to build up her immune system so that she doesn’t have to wear the surgical mask, said she eventually would like to get a job working with children.