DATE: Sunday, June 15, 1997                 TAG: 9706150039

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   34 lines

WOMAN HAS LONG-AWAITED KIDNEY AFTER WHIRLWIND TRIP STATE POLICE GOT HER TO A HOSPITAL IN PENNSYLVANIA JUST IN TIME.

Patricia Rusnak's whirlwind journey from a Suffolk highway to a Pennsylvania operating room ended with good news Saturday: She has the new kidney she's been awaiting for two years.

``She came out of surgery a little while ago and is in critical condition,'' said Linda Breisch, a nursing supervisor at the Hershey Medical Center. That's normal after undergoing a transplant, she added.

Rusnak, 41, of Frackville, Pa., had been on a transplant waiting list for two years when hospital officials called family members in Pennsylvania to say a kidney was available - but that she had to get to the hospital by 10 p.m.

As luck would have it, Rusnak was away on vacation. She, her husband and their two teen-age daughters were driving from Orlando, Fla., to her sister's house in Newport News Friday afternoon.

The family called Pennsylvania State Police, who alerted authorities along the Interstate 95 corridor, including Virginia State Police, to be on the lookout for the Rusnak family van.

Virginia trooper Dave Copley, alerted just 10 minutes earlier, spotted and stopped the vehicle about 7:30 p.m. near Bowers Hill in Suffolk. He rushed Rusnak to Norfolk International Airport, where state police had a private aeromedical plane waiting.

After the plane touched down in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania troopers picked Rusnak up and took her to the hospital. She arrived with minutes to spare and was prepared for surgery.

There were no immediate signs of complications after the surgery, which ended Saturday afternoon, hospital officials said.

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