HAWAIIAN STYLE
Prayers continue after woman gets new heart
Penny Felimer Kalani, the Sacred Hearts Academy alumna whose quest for a life-saving heart transplant and chemotherapy moved her high school classmates to set aside their 20th reunion to help her, has had a turn for the better.
Kalani, 38, underwent successful heart transplant surgery May 11 at Massachusetts General Hospital. She emerged from seven hours of surgery in satisfactory condition.
KALANI
Her first words to her mother, said classmate Michiko Wada, were, "Go call the girls" — her classmates at Sacred Hearts.
If all goes as planned, six months from now Kalani can begin her second fight for life, with the chemotherapy to battle a blood disease.
Kalani's story, reported first here in February, galvanized the close-knit, 115-member Sacred Hearts Class of 1984 to take up her cause, financially and emotionally. They named their mission of support "Pennies for a Heart," eventually raising over $30,000 to help Penny cover her medical bills.
Sacred Hearts' student body donated money. Teachers sent checks. The senior class made a huge card and Sister Xavier baked her famous cookies. TV stations and newspapers picked up the little school's cause celebre. Kalani was everybody's sweetheart.
In March, friends, family and people she never knew staged what Wada said was the "World's Biggest, Baddest Garage Sale" in the school gymnasium.
Meanwhile, in the Boston hospital, hope for Kalani eked to a precious few days; by the beginning of May, she was given less than two weeks to live. She could no longer eat, and was often too weak to speak to the family who flew from Hawai'i to be at her bedside.
A group of Hawai'i nuns who had recently been transferred to Boston took up a vigil at her bedside and began to pray. While they prayed, Wada said, Kalani fell asleep. "They kept the angels working overtime." Back in Hawai'i, her classmates prayed, too.
Late one evening last week, nurses asked Kalani for her height and weight, curious information for so late at night. Only their smiles revealed the reason: They had found Kalani a new heart. At 2 a.m. she was wheeled into surgery.
After Kalani emerged from surgery, her classmates gathered at their old campus and prayed not only for Kalani, Wada said, "but for the (donor) whose heart now beats inside Penny."
Kalani wasn't told the particulars of that loss, but hopes that she might someday be able to meet the donor's family.
Meanwhile, her friends continue to support her through the "Pennies for a Heart" fund-raising effort and with their prayers. To make a contribution, call Sacred Hearts Academy at 734-5058.
Wade Kilohana Shirkey writes on Island life. Reach him at 525-8090.
