by Carole Anne Scott

Both Sacred Heart parishioners and Roslindale residents, the two self-proclaimed “sisters” come from entirely different sections of the globe. Fair-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed Berna Mann speaks with the lilting brogue of her native County Limerick in Ireland. Brown-skinned, black-haired, brown-eyed Johanny Pimentel is originally from the Dominican Republic, yet speaks English without any discernible accent.

Acquaintances, with mutual friends in the Parish, Berna and Johanny could never have imagined, even six months ago, the adventure that God had in store for them or the life-changing experience that would lead them to regard one another as family. Last February in what can only be described as an amazing act of courage, confidence, faith, and generosity, Berna donated one of her healthy kidneys to Johanny, the mother of three, a dialysis patient and a worried waiter on a transplant list that, despite her deteriorating medical condition, held no donor in sight for her.

Although she describes herself as a “very private person,” Johanny agreed to be interviewed for this article because of the important message about life-giving live organ transplant found in her story. Suffering from high blood pressure during all three of her pregnancies, Johanny initially was not alarmed as her BP readings hit 195/100 and 200/95 when carrying her youngest child and only daughter, Jasmine. Fearful of complications such as pre-eclampsia, however, the doctors decided to take the baby at seven months.

Initially, Johanny was fine, but after only a year had passed, she found herself in Harvard’s emergency clinic a decade ago, suffering from a severe pain in her head that was unlike any migraine she had ever experienced. Diagnosed with a kidney problem, Johanny initially thought that she would take good care of herself, manage her condition and be fine. Her doctor, however, delivered what sounded like a death sentence, “We’ll try to control your blood pressure, but eventually, you will experience complete renal failure.”

Always a church-going person, Johanny honestly admits to having turned away from God upon hearing the devastating news. “At first, I was very angry with God,” she stated. Johanny admits to arguing with God, and states, “I had never questioned him, but I asked ‘How could you do this to me? How could you let this happen to me?’”

Refusing to go to church, Johanny grew increasingly depressed until a turnaround occurred. “One day,” she explains, “I felt so alone and empty. I decided to go to church. As I knelt before God, I told him that I was so sorry and that I knew if this was happening to me, then he’d give me the strength to go through it.” With those thoughts came a tremendous sense of peace and the certain knowledge that somehow everything would be fine. Johanny was back at church, again an active participant in Sacred Heart’s Spanish Mass community.

Meanwhile, her health was deteriorating. The debilitating nature of her disease forced Johanny to give up her lucrative career in real estate management. Always energetic and vivacious, she soon found herself tired most of the time. Afraid to travel to her native country in case she should get sick there, Johanny and her husband Juan nevertheless managed to bring their children to Disney. “We tried to keep life as normal as possible for the children,” she states, adding, “We told the older two about my condition, so they’d understand that I would have to follow a very strict diet and would be tired.”

In September of 2002, Johanny’s kidneys had weakened to the point where she had to undergo dialysis three times a week for four hours at a time. Perfectly healthy apart from her failing kidneys, Johanny states, “When I started dialysis, the doctor said I was a perfect candidate for a transplant.” Put on the waiting list, Johanny was warned that it was a long list and that it would be a four- to five-year wait.

Drawing her strength from her support systems of church at Sacred Heart and family, Johanny confronted her medical condition head on, following doctor’s orders and trying to stay healthy as she faced the sadness of watching some of her friends in the dialysis unit pass away, even at young ages, in their fifties and early sixties. Finally, in 2005, she herself became terribly ill and was transferred to the intensive care unit at the Brigham.

It became apparent that time was running out for Johanny and that if she was to survive, she would have to find her own donor. Finding a willing donor who is a match allows that person’s kidney to be transplanted into the patient, thus overriding the waiting list. At least ten members of Johanny’s family were tested to see if they would be suitable donors; not one of them was a match. Meanwhile, her health continued to deteriorate as she dropped from a size twelve to a six in only four months.

Although they were only acquaintances, Johanny and Berna did have a mutual friend in common, Milli Cruz, also of Sacred Heart. When first learning about Johanny’s condition five or six years ago, Berna said, “Let me know if I can do anything.” She quips, “I meant something like driving the kids to appointments. I knew nothing about live transplants at the time.” She soon would learn.

Approached by Milli to set up a website to spread the word about Johanny’s condition and try to arouse the interest of other potential donors, Berna threw herself into the project. Also, on a lark, she had her blood tested in July of 2005 to see if she were a match. Watching late-night TV over a month later, Berna heard a contestant talking about needing a transplant. It reminded her that she had not heard back from the hospital. Calling the next day, she learned that she was a match! “I felt like I had won the Lottery,” she exclaimed!

After passing the blood tests, the tissue typing test, and the rigorous medical and psychological screenings, Berna, a person from a different race and ethnicity than Johanny, learned that she, unlike Johanny’s own relatives, was a perfect match. When people are considering live organ donation, every effort is made to ensure that their privacy and anonymity are maintained. Johanny had no idea that Berna had even been tested.

Meanwhile, concerned friends of Johanny’s in Florida, Texas and Georgia were asking her why the website wasn’t yet operational. The reason was that Berna knew it wasn’t necessary because she would be the donor, but Johanny had no clue about that. Calling Berna on her cell phone from the BJ’s parking lot, Johanny couldn’t believe that Berna somehow knew that a donor might have been found. All such information was kept strictly confidential.

“How do you know?” Johanny kept asking. Berna replied, “Well...guess. You know the person and I know the person.” Bewildered, Johanny kept repeating the statement, “You know the person and I know the person.” She screamed with joy as she finally figured out that the donor would be Berna.

Having recently suffered the loss of her beloved Dad, I asked Berna how she found the courage to tell her grieving mother about the surgery. “That’s an interesting question,” she replied, stating that donors are urged to be sure well in advance of the surgery that their loved ones are fully supportive of their decision. When she called her Mom in Ireland to tell her the news, Berna wisely framed her decision in the context of her childhood experiences, explaining that she felt the organ donation was something her Dad would have wanted her to do. Berna told me, “When we were old enough to donate blood, my Dad would put us in the car and take us to the health center. ‘You’re healthy,’ he’d insist,... and you need to save lives.’”

Explaining to her Mom, that she needed her to support her decision, but if she disagreed, she wouldn’t be a donor, Berna was delighted when her mother “was thrilled at the thought of it and agreed.” Her Mom even hung a photo of Johanny in her house and now explains to visitors that “In a way, Johanny is my daughter too.”

The feeling is mutual in Johanny’s family. She explains that her son Juan (aka “Harvey” to avoid confusion with Dad Juan) was telling his Irish friends that he is part Irish too, thanks to Berna’s kidney.

Both of these courageous women want to tell their story because donors are so important and so many lives could be saved if more people were willing to donate. Of the experience, Berna stated, “I’d recommend it to anyone...I was never in pain from the procedure, ever.” Amazingly she went on to add, “I’ve had worse pain with an earache.” A mere two weeks after her surgery, Berna was in Washington DC attending a conference!

Not all her loved ones were as supportive of Berna’s decision as her Mom had been. One close friend told her that bringing on a disability was a limiting career move and could anger her employer to the point where they’d find a reason to dismiss her. Fortunately, the exact opposite was true as Berna’s employer, Parents Alliance for Catholic Education (“PACE”), magnanimously gave her a special two-week leave for the surgery.

Berna’s delighted with the outcome of her decision, stating, “‘Who is your brother or your sister,’ the Bible asks us. Johanny and I are sisters, and I realize the value of what I’ve gained, a whole new family who loves me unconditionally.”

Post-op and now healthy, Johanny concurs, saying, “I have a closer relationship with God because of what I went through, and I have found a new sister, a new family.” Once she has completed her recovery, she hopes to accompany Berna on a vacation to Ireland where she’ll meet the rest of her new-found relatives.

Theirs is a remarkable story of two courageous women who live out the Christian faith in the way it was meant to be lived, even to the point in Berna’s case of taking a serious risk for a mere acquaintance, not a really close friend or a relative. We wish both of them continued good health, happiness, and many wonderful adventures in Ireland.