Hospital Releases Girl With Inmate Dad’s Kidney

A 13-year-old girl who received a lifesaving kidney from her imprisoned father last week was released from the hospital Monday.

Renada Daniel-Patterson was doing so well that doctors said she may be able to attend school in a month. But her mother, Vickie Daniel, said Renada would be tutored at home until September.

Renada had only met her father, David Patterson, twice before last Tuesday, when he left the jail cell where he was serving time for burglary to donate the kidney.

She visited with him again Monday in his hospital room at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, where the transplant was performed.

Renada was born with one kidney that failed when she was 5. She got a new kidney that year, but her body rejected it a year later. Her mother couldn’t donate one of hers because she is diabetic, and no suitable matches were found.

Patterson, 34, left Renada and her mother before Renada was born. He had known for years that his daughter needed a new organ, but he was never asked to donate. In November, he wrote to offer one of his kidneys.

“I feel just wonderful that they allowed me to do this for my daughter,” said Patterson, who is serving a seven-year sentence in a California state prison. “With my lifestyle, I was never around. I’m going to be there in every way I can.”

Doctors have not said when Daniel-Patterson will be released.