La Sierra University
Daughter, Father Celebrate Gift of Life at Father’s Day Graduation PHOTOS BY NATAN VIGNA
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t was a potentially life-altering decision, but for Megan Malingkas there was no alternative — she would do whatever it took to help her father regain his health and lead a good life. During Christmas break this school year, the La Sierra University senior health sciences major underwent surgery at Scripps Green Hospital in San Diego during which one of Megan’s healthy kidneys was removed and transplanted into her father, Moody Malingkas, who had been diagnosed with end-stage renal kidney failure a year earlier. He endured daily dialysis for four months leading up to the surgery. Without the donation of Megan’s healthy kidney, the hourslong treatments could continue indefinitely. Doctors confirmed Megan as a transplant match for her father in May 2016 after Megan, her two sisters, Maureen and Mona, and other family members were screened as potential donors. Following a delay due to a bout of worsening health for Moody, surgery was performed on Jan. 3 this year. Two months later Moody’s kidney functions had returned to normal. On June 18, the Malingkas family celebrated Moody’s renewed health and Megan’s unselfish gift to her father as they gathered at La Sierra University’s Founders’ Green to observe both Megan’s graduation and Father’s Day, which fell on graduation Sunday this year. The journey began when Moody was diagnosed with kidney failure in early 2016. The family worked with two hospitals in their search for a kidney donor — Scripps Green and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Moody was placed on a five- to seven-year waiting list without guarantee of a donation. Megan researched everything she could on his condition and discovered that without a kidney transplant, her father would be tethered to a dialysis machine several hours a day for the rest of his life. “My sisters and I knew that this was not the life we wanted for our dad. We wanted him to be able to hang out with us at night and not be stuck to a machine at home,” she said.
Megan Malingkas, center, with her father, Moody, mother, Vicky, and sister, Mona, far right, during La Sierra University’s graduation weekend.
“Both of my parents actually told us not to do this and that they didn’t want [us to donate] one of our kidneys just in case something happened to us in the future,” Megan said. “My blood was tested probably 15 times in the span of two months, but I knew that it would all be worth it. The idea of not donating my kidney never crossed my mind.” For the Malingkas family, their arduous ordeal has challenged and strengthened their long-standing faith as Seventh-day Adventist Christians. “When I got this disease, I brought it up to the church,” said Moody, who is an elder at the Victorville church. “The elders, the pastors, they were all praying for me. I was thinking maybe God didn’t listen to me, but I can see the process. God heard my prayer. When things happened, they happened quickly. Everybody was so happy when they learned the prayer was answered.” “This was a big decision, and I couldn’t have done it without my faith,” added Megan, who attends Crosswalk church in Redlands. “I knew that if it was in His [God’s] will, He would make it happen. If I wasn’t meant to do this, He would
let me know. Throughout the whole process, I looked to Him.” The day after graduation, Megan began her career with a first job at Kaiser Permanente Riverside in the administration department. In July, she traveled for three weeks with her sister, Mona, a recent Loma Linda University nursing school graduate, and her boyfriend, Taylor Scharffenberg, who played basketball for La Sierra’s Golden Eagles from 2010-2013. The trio went to Moody’s homeland of Indonesia where they visited Malingkas family relatives, and also toured Japan and Thailand. The trip was a graduation gift from the elder Malingkas’s. Megan also expressed gratitude for the support she received from her La Sierra University colleagues in the accounts and loans office where she worked and in other departments, and from professors and friends who helped in various ways. “Many people sent loving and thoughtful texts and prayers for me before and after my surgery just to tell me they were thinking of me and my family. It was some of the best things to wake up to,” she said.
Darla Martin Tucker AUGUST 2017
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