BOY, 5, GETS LIFE-SAVING KIDNEY FROM MOMS CLUB FRIEND.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

WESTWOOD - Robert Eckhardt turns tiny fingers into a fist and aims it at visitors, like Spider-man, his favorite superhero with the ability to cocoon an enemy in a sticky web.

Outside of the needles and tubes, the surgeries and hospital rooms, his world is very much that of a 5-year-old boy; shoot 'em up video games, good guys versus bad guys, fast cars and motorcycles.

He is also a boy with a special gift he carries inside him: a grown-up's kidney donated to him by a family friend.

It's a story of miracles, said his mom, Sandra Eckhardt, who watched over her son Wednesday inside the UCLA Medical Center, where he sat propped up in bed while a DVD of the Disney cartoon ``Home on the Range,'' played. It's a story of how sometimes there's that one person you meet in life, who can one day turn around and, unexpectedly, hand you your life back.

``We like to say that I gave birth to Robert, but Danielle gave him a second life,'' Eckhardt said.

Five years ago, before Robert was born, Eckhardt met Danielle Resnick at the Santa Clarita chapter of the Moms Club. Both were already moms. Both would be moms again. Along with others, the two women became friends, meeting up after their children were born.

But after Robert was born, Resnick said she sensed that Sandra and her husband, Franz, were struggling with something. Robert was born with malfunctioning kidneys. He was a year old when he began dialysis. Three years later, Eckhardt mentioned to friends that Robert would need a kidney transplant.

Several friends of the Newhall family stepped up to help find Robert a kidney, Eckhardt said, but it was Resnick who was a match.

``There are so many times when you sit back and you simply can't help someone,'' Resnick said. ``But this was something I could do. It was a relief, that in the face of powerlessness, this was something I could do to make things better.''

Resnick, 29, has three children of her own. Since she decided to donate her kidney, she has been asked many times about what would happen if her own children needed a donor.

``I look at the flip side of that,'' Resnick said. ``I'd hate to say if my kids needed it, I can't donate. I would hate for that to be a reason because sometimes, as in Robert's case, neither parent was a match.''

According to published reports, less-invasive approaches to removing a kidney from a living donor is encouraging more people to give one of their kidneys to someone in need of a transplant.

Resnick said the process wasn't as daunting as others would believe. She underwent tests and was allowed to go home after a two-day stay at the hospital.

``I don't think that people realize that kidney transplant is not a big deal,'' Resnick said.

And Robert's surgery marked a sort of milestone for the UCLA Medical Center.

He was the youngest recipient to receive an organ transplant from a living family friend, officials said.

``This is a common thing to have adults donate to children, and the kids often do well,'' said Robert Ettinger, the child's physician. ``The outlook for Robert is outstanding.''

Meanwhile, the Eckhardt family is excited at the prospect of bringing Robert home. They expect him to be discharged from the hospital Friday.

Sandra Eckhardt said she and her husband will do everything they can to make him stronger, just like the link between the Eckhardts and the Resnicks.

``It's pretty daunting in that you can't believe someone would do something like that,'' Sandra Eckhardt said of Resnick. ``My husband was saying that now she is family.''

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Robert Eckhardt, 5, recovers Wednesday from kidney transplant surgery in his room at the UCLA Medical Center.

(2 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) Robert Eckhardt, 5, watches a movie with his mom, Sandra, at UCLA Medical Center after his kidney transplant.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer