DAD TO GIVE KIDNEY TO DAUGHTER, 6

PERRYVILLE -- Six-year-old Alisha Schumer and her father Tom shared "dad's chair" Sunday, talking and giggling like millions of other fathers and daughters do.

But unlike other youngsters, Alisha will undergo her second kidney transplant Thursday at Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis. Her father is the donor.

"This is going to give her a better chance at life. And you always want your children to have the best," Schumer said.

One of nine children of Tom and Linda Schumer of rural Perryville, Alisha was born with kidney disease. Though it was discovered when she was a month old, doctors wanted to wait until she turned eight to perform a transplant. But Alisha's damaged kidneys gave out sooner.

By the time she was 3, doctors said it was time to go ahead with the surgery. Linda Schumer donated one of her kidneys to her daughter.

"The surgery went great, there were no complications," Tom Schumer said. "The doctors said the kidney started functioning right away."

During the year following the transplant, when rejection was most likely to set in, doctors continued to give Alisha a clean bill of health.

But Alisha became sick soon after the first year passed. Tests revealed her body was beginning to reject her mother's kidney, and that the rejection couldn't be reversed by drugs.

"We thought we were over the hump, but we weren't," Linda Schumer said. "The kidney was slowly shutting down."

Doctors recommended a second transplant, and said a sibling most likely would provide the best match. But the Schumer's eight other children, now ages 2 to 16, weren't old enough under Missouri law to donate an organ without first going through a complicated legal procedure.

The Schumers decided against an anonymous organ donor because of the waiting period involved it can be anywhere from several weeks to several years and the fact that transplants using organs taken from live donors have a better success rate. They decided Tom would be the next donor.

Tom Schumer said he felt the same about the surgery as his wife did three years ago.

"This is my child," Linda Schumer said. "If I can give her life ... To me, I didn't have a choice."

The transplant is scheduled for Thursday. Tom's surgery, a more complicated procedure that will require removal of a rib, will begin at 10:30 a.m. at St. Louis University Medical Center.

Across the street at Cardinal Glennon, Alisha's surgery will begin at about 11:30.

Alisha, a first grader at St. Vincent Elementary School, will spend three to four weeks in the hospital after the transplant. She then will have to spend another four weeks at home, wearing masks to help shield her from germs. Tom will spend five days in the hospital and several more weeks in recovery at home.

Linda Schumer said her daughter's courage amazes the nurses at Cardinal Glennon, where she has been treated since she was a month old. "She doesn't cry, she just accepts it. She hasn't fought it, and that's helped a lot." Leaving her daughter at the hospital is the hardest part, she said.

Tom Schumer insists that the family keeps a positive attitude toward Alisha's illness. "You can fight it or complain about it, but it's easier to just accept it, to say, `here's the problem and these are the solutions,'" he said.

"We see a lot of children at Cardinal Glennon with terminal diseases. But we feel lucky because Alisha has an option. Some of those kids don't. It makes you count your blessings."

The oldest of the Schumer children, Shannon, 16, will help care for the other children during the coming months. But the children's father said Alisha's illness has meant time away from the other children.

"At times, we know it means we're not giving the others as much attention, but we explain why," he said. "The older ones understand, but it's hard for the younger ones."

The family's medical insurance will cover most of the estimated $100,000 cost of the two procedures. Tom is employed at the Guyot Lumber Company in Perryville. But the family will have to come up with money to pay for endless trips to St. Louis, meals, and the insurance deductible. A special fund for the Schumers has been established at Mercantile Bank of Perryville.

The Schumers say they are more reserved about the second transplant because of the ultimate failure of the first. "We were so optimistic after the first one," Linda Schumer said.

If Thursday's transplant is successful, the kidney should function properly for the rest of Alisha's life. Linda Schumer said that although she knows of another child who has had four transplants, such chronic rejection is uncommon.

If Alisha's body eventually does reject her father's kidney, Shannon, who will be old enough to donate an organ in two years, is a third possible donor.

But for now, the family will concentrate on getting through the coming week. Shannon Schumer said the house will be quieter while Alisha is in the hospital. "She livens up the place," he said.