The people of Israel solute Ronald Johnson!
10/2001 Ronald Johnson
 visiting Israel at Zvika's house!
 

 Briton to help save the life of 10-year-old he has never met!
By Maurice Weaver

  Lisa Ostrovsky

A FATHER of two has volunteered to donate one of his lungs to save the life of a 10-year-old girl he has never met.
Ronald Johnson, 48, flies to America today to prepare for surgery that involves a level of self-sacrifice that few people, however giving their nature, would be prepared to contemplate. He has agreed to have what he knows is a risky operation, after reading of the desperate search by the girl's parents to find a suitable transplant donor.

Lisa Ostrovsky, who was born in Russia but moved with her family to Israel when she was 12 months old, has cystic fibrosis, a chronic inherited lung disease, and has been given only months to live. She has recently been moved to the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, one of several centers in America where lung transplants can be carried out. The estimated cost is about £450,000.

Her father, Dr Ilia Ostrovsky, an ecologist, is still striving to raise the money through a global Internet appeal while her mother, Valentina, is at the hospital with her. She is to donate the first lung. Mr. Johnson, an office caretaker from the village of Hackleton, Northants, read about Lisa's plight in September when he picked up a copy of a weekly free newspaper, the London Jewish News.

He said: "It was just a paper that I found lying around and I was scanning it out of interest. Suddenly I saw a picture of this delightful little girl under the headline 'Time is Running out for Lisa'. It told about her brave fight for life and her parents' attempts to raise the money and find a donor for a transplant.

"I'm not Jewish and I don't know these people but it affected me very deeply. I'm an ordinary working man and I hadn't got the money to send a big donation. Then it suddenly dawned on me - she needs a new lung, I've got two healthy ones.  I could be the second donor."

Mr. Johnson checked his blood donor card which confirmed that he was an 0-positive match. He met the other criteria by being under 50 and a non-smoker. When he broke the news of his decision to his wife, Denise, a nurse, and his sons, Daniel, 19, and Ben, 17, they were incredulous. He said: "They thought I wanted my head feeling. I think Daniel still does."

The former Northampton councilor said his only previous attempt to do something unusual with his life was when he and some friends set up a rock group in the Seventies. It made one LP and disbanded.

Mr. Johnson said: "When Denise realized I was deadly serious about the transplant she said, 'Well, I'm behind you if that's want you really want.' She said she just hoped I don't come back in a wheelchair. I think she understands that, while I am not a particularly religious man, this is something I just have to do.

"I've had a wonderful life with a great family and I suppose I see this as a chance to give something back. I'm not depressed and I'm not a martyr. I'm not looking for praise and I'm certainly not looking for money. It's just not often that anybody, let alone an ordinary chap like me with five O-levels, gets an opportunity to do something positive that will actually save somebody's life."

After discussing his plan with his doctor Mr. Johnson went for lung tests at the Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Given the all-clear, he then contacted the hospital in America and spoke for an hour to Jean Rea, the hospital's transplants coordinator. She explained the procedure and outlined the risks.

Mr. Johnson said: "They don't take all the lung, only the lower part. She warned me that there is a one-in-20 chance of minor complications and that I will lose 18 per cent of lung function. Apparently you can survive at 50 per cent."

The interview also assessed his mental and physical suitability. When it came to his physique, all was not well, however. At 6ft 2in, he was deemed by the surgeons to have too large a lung for a child transplant and all seemed lost. Lisa's father then took a second opinion from surgeons at another American hospital, the St Louis Children's Hospital in St Louis, Missouri. They deemed Mr. Johnson's size to be less of a problem and agreed to undertake the surgery there instead.

Mr. Johnson, who is due to fly from Gatwick at noon today, said the operation was "penciled in" for Dec 2. "I'm not frightened because I know in my heart that I'm doing the right thing," he said. "Losing a bit of puff doesn't worry me. I'm not a sportsman and I don't like gardening.

"Just think - I'm donating something I probably won't miss and it's going to save a life. Isn't that wonderful? I'm looking forward to meeting Lisa and hope we will get on well. Perhaps when all this is over I will go to Israel and see her living a happy, healthy life."

  On  January  2nd,  2000
  During  the change of days Lisa Ostrovsky passed away from our world. 
 The little girl  was fighting so hard for her life, she never gave up, her little body did.