INMATE WHO DONATED KIDNEY FACING LIFE.

Byline: Eric Brazil San Francisco Examiner 

The convict who donated a kidney to the daughter he deserted is being investigated for alleged heroin possession and faces a possible ``third strike'' conviction that could keep him behind bars for life.

David Patterson, 34, who is serving a seven-year sentence for burglary in the maximum-security New Folsom Prison, is now in administrative segregation while the substance found in his cell on May 18 is laboratory tested to determine whether it is heroin, authorities said.

Patterson underwent surgery March 12 at UC-San Francisco Medical Center for removal of a kidney, which was transplanted into his daughter, Renada Daniel-Patterson, 13.

She was later released from the hospital and is making good progress recovering at home, a hospital spokeswoman said.

New Folsom spokeswoman Linda Howell said the substance had been found in Patterson's cell during a routine search. Patterson, who has evidently recuperated from his kidney donation operation, had been in the prison's general population until that discovery.

Patterson is due for parole in July 1997.

``If he's found guilty, that might change,'' Howell said. Patterson's burglary conviction was his third felony.

The Patterson family kidney transplant operation gained national publicity, not only because the donor was a prisoner, but because he was donating the kidney to a daughter he had deserted before she was born.

In a letter he wrote to her in November, which surprised both the girl and her mother, Vickie Daniel, Patterson offered to donate the kidney and said, ``If you can forgive me, I will do my best to be the daddy I should have been a long time ago.''

The transplant was the second for Renada, who was born with one kidney, which failed when she was 5 years old. A transplanted kidney failed her a year later; she has been on dialysis three times a week ever since.