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Gifts aim to bring gift of life

Touched by a young woman's story, dozens respond with donations for a kidney transplant operation.

By EBONY WINDOM
Published October 8, 2005

Greg Phillips has been flooded with phone calls. Each one, he says, brings hope.

On Friday, the story of 25-year-old Mi Kyoung Kim appeared in the St. Petersburg Times. She needs a lifesaving kidney transplant, but her family can't afford it and doesn't have health insurance.

Phillips' phone started ringing Friday morning. He says dozens of people have reached out to help pay for the $190,000 surgery. So far, says Phillips, a friend of the family, they've pledged a total of about $10,000.

Mi Kyoung has been at Bayfront Medical Center for the past three weeks. That facility doesn't perform transplant surgeries, however.

Mi Kyoung was slated to be released from Bayfront on Friday. But after several meetings with doctors Friday, the family says she'll now be released sometime next week.

After that, Mi Kyoung will get regular dialysis treatments either at home or an outpatient center, until her transplant surgery, says the Rev. Yong Il Kim, who is not related to the family. Rather, he's a Tampa pastor who met the Kims on Thursday and now is acting as their translator.

"Bayfront hospital will make all the medical expenses free for Mi Kyoung Kim," he said. "They said they will take care of one month of dialysis treatment. They were nice about that."

In the meantime, the family has launched a fundraising campaign to help pay for Mi Kyoung's transplant. They hope to have enough money in a month.

Two years ago, Mi Kyoung and her parents moved to California from Seoul, South Korea. They now live in St. Petersburg, where Mi Kyoung was learning English and studying nursing at St. Petersburg College.

Mi Kyoung's father, Jong Woo Kim, leads Hope Korean Lutheran Church in New Port Richey. He works part time as a janitor, as does his wife, Jeong Hee Lee Kim.

And since the Kims speak no English, Phillips is helping out.

Since the story appeared in the paper, others are stepping up, too.

The owner of a St. Petersburg printing company wants to help get the word out about Mi Kyoung's plight. So he offered to print 10,000 posters and post them all over town.

Amir Ardebily, who runs a St. Petersburg karate school, read Mi Kyoung's story and then asked his students to help out. In a matter of hours, they had gathered $4,000. And he wants to raise another $6,000 by next week.

"We will raise this money," said Ardebily, 41. "I know that we can do it."

Mike Cockerham of St. Petersburg offered to put down the $1,890 initial deposit for Mi Kyoung's transplant evaluation.

Phillips is keeping a list, jotting down names and phone numbers of people who want to help.

One man called Phillips and offered one of his own kidneys.

Dianne Caton of St. Petersburg hasn't worked in seven months. But she managed to scrape up $100 to help Mi Kyoung.

"I kind of understand the lack of insurance and the struggle of moving to a new country," the 54-year-old New Zealand native said Friday. "My heart goes out to them."

A trust fund has been set up for the Kim family called the Mi Kyoung Benefit. Anyone interested in making a donation can do so at any AmSouth Bank or call Greg Phillips at (727) 534-1190.

[Last modified October 8, 2005, 01:26:19]