Jimmy Hatton

Teen who always gave of self gives gift of life
Crystal Gonzalez, 10, looked up to neighbor Jimmy Hatton, 14, and followed him everywhere. Now he will be with her always

By H. Gregory Meyer
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 3, 2004

When he learned a few weeks ago that Crystal Gonzalez needed a new kidney, Jimmy Hatton felt frustrated he couldn't help.

"He hugged her," said the 10-year-old girl's mother. "And he said, `I'll give you my kidney.'"

It was the kind of big-hearted gesture that Jimmy, 14, was known for, a sentiment in keeping with his status as the teen Pied Piper of South Whipple Street.

On Wednesday, Jimmy died after collapsing from what family members said was a brain aneurysm. And on Thursday, his promise became a bittersweet truth as his kidney was transplanted into Crystal's body.

"They said there's a list of people waiting," said a grief-stricken Jacqueline Ryan, Jimmy's mother. "I said, `I don't care who's waiting. Crystal is going to be number one on that list.'"

Instead of grieving along with the rest of the neighborhood kids on Jimmy's front porch Thursday afternoon, Crystal was being prepped for surgery in Children's Memorial Hospital. Her parents waited anxiously for their daughter as they mourned their neighbor's only child. Jimmy's mother and grandmother went through his snapshots, veering between extreme sorrow and the feeling that they had done the right thing.

Crystal successfully came out of surgery late Thursday and will remain in intensive care for 24 hours, according to her mother, Maria Gonzalez. Doctors said that she was in good condition and responding well.

Crystal, a student at Marquette Elementary School, lives three doors down from the bungalow where Jimmy's family lives. She was diagnosed with kidney disease 2 years ago and had been undergoing dialysis for the last two months, said her father Jose Gonzalez, 35.

Her mother, also 35, said she had been preparing to give her daughter one of her own kidneys when Jimmy died.

Jimmy was 4 years older than Crystal and was a big man on the 5900 block of South Whipple in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood of the city. Children came from as far away as 64th Street when he orchestrated water-balloon battles. He'd drag his hoop into the street and shoot baskets until 11 p.m. with neighborhood kids, his grandmother said.

But he was a bigger hit with Crystal.

"She was always following Jimmy around everywhere," her mother said. "He was like her big brother."

A few weeks ago, Crystal revealed her kidney condition to friends. Jimmy didn't miss a beat.

"Jimmy had told my daughter, `If your mom's kidney doesn't match with yours, I'll check myself to see if mine matches. If my kidney matches with yours, I'll give you my kidney,'" Maria Gonzalez said.

When Jimmy collapsed Tuesday morning he was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, then transported to Advocate Hope Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn, where family members said he was brain-dead. Doctors pronounced him dead Wednesday afternoon. Autopsy results are pending, a Cook County medical examiner's office spokesman said.

Jose Gonzalez said Jimmy's uncle knocked on the door Tuesday and shared the frightening news, suggesting organ donation might be a consideration. At 4 a.m. Thursday, hospital officials called to say that Jimmy's kidney was a match for Crystal.

"For me it's like a miracle," Jose Gonzalez said.

"It's a big loss," his wife said. "But in a way it's like a blessing. We still have Jimmy around. He's living in her."

Jimmy's mother also awoke to the news of compatible kidneys. She spent the first night after her son's death sleeping on his futon, in a bedroom filled with his basketball jerseys, sports trophies and his baby picture tacked to a wall.

She had been in the hospital Wednesday when an official asked her about organ donation.

"Right away I said, "I want [Crystal] to have it," said Jacqueline Ryan, 42.

"Everyone said, `She might not get it. She might not be a match.' I said, `She's going to be a match. That's Jimmy's little girl.' She just grabbed onto Jimmy every minute she was with him," his mother said.

She last saw her son when she dropped him off at St. Rita High School, 7740 S. Western Ave., Tuesday morning. At 9:30 a.m., between second and third periods, the freshman climbed a flight of stairs in a red school-issue shirt and stopped in front of his locker, No. 621, said Rev. Tom McCarthy, the school's principal and president. Then he collapsed.

Sam Rakowski, a junior who works summers as a lifeguard, said he came across Jimmy curled on the floor. He turned him over, ran and called for someone to call 911, then ran back and started CPR. A school official and paramedics soon followed.

"He was just laying on the ground, looking at me. I couldn't tell if he was unconscious. He was breathing, but he didn't look well," said Rakowski, 16.

After the news of Jimmy's death broke, McCarthy interrupted classes and led a schoolwide prayer over the public address system.

"It's tough for kids," McCarthy said. "You're not supposed to go to school and die."

Most donated organs used in transplants go to people on a national waiting list, but next of kin are permitted to give a loved one's organs to someone they know, said Kate O'Connor, associate executive director of the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois.

But it is extremely rare to find a recipient with kidneys of matching blood type, size and antigens, she said.

"In this case, because the person knew this person, it didn't involve money and no coercion or anything like that went on; it sounds like a truly altruistic donation," O'Connor said.

There were 704 kidney transplants in Illinois last year and 3,129 Illinois candidates are now on the U.S. waiting list for kidney transplants, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Jacqueline Ryan said Jimmy's other organs also will be donated--to strangers. But she added, "I would like to know who gets his heart. Because whoever gets his heart is very lucky."

Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune