February 15, 2010

Central Florida woman to donate kidney to man she’s never met

By Kelley Luckstein

When Cindi Love watched her nephew struggle with kidney failure – enduring hours of dialysis only to get severe headaches, nausea or pass out after the treatment – her heart ached to help him…

 

After contacting hospitals in search of a recipient, Love, 52, discovered http://www.matchingdonors.com , a website that helps altruistic organ donors find patients who need their help…

 

Online, Love read a short letter from Thomas Wirt, a 66-year-old Minnesota man who'd been a bookkeeper and then a long-haul truck driver.

 

Wirt has polycystic kidney disease…When Love read that she and Wirt had the same blood type, she contacted the Mayo Clinic, and asked if her blood sample (already on file there because she'd volunteered to be a donor for another person) would match Wirt's. Last August, when the Mayo Clinic found that they were a match, Love called Wirt with the good news.

 

Orlando Sentinel, by Linda Shrieves,  2/12/2010

 

Additional coverage:

Winona Daily News,

TMC.net,

Post-Bulletin,

Central Florida News

Tags: kidney transplant, matchingdonor.com, Transplant

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