On Tuesday, Sept 18, I'll be undergoing surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN to donate a kidney to Deb Porter Gill, a beautiful woman I have grown to love and respect as we have traveled together on this journey. Don and I are using this site to keep our friends and family updated through my surgery and recovery. You can check here for updates or sign up to get email notifications when we post.
This story started 16 years ago when a wonderful family friend, Cheryl Cooper, donated a kidney to my beloved Omaha cousin Ann Goldstein. That lifesaving transplant gave us many more wonderful years to enjoy with Ann. She was one of my favorite people in the whole world. When I read in the Jewish Chronicle last December about Deb's search for a kidney, I knew I had to try to pay that gift forward. Miraculously, Deb and I are an astoundingly good match, and after extensive testing, Mayo determined I have "textbook perfect kidneys" and am healthy and sane (!) enough to be a living kidney donor.
You can read Deb's original story in the Jewish Chronicle here:
https://bit.ly/2OVlZXJAnd more about our joint story here:
https://bit.ly/2oNj4EIAnd here's Deb's CaringBridge site:
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/debgillThanks for all of your well wishes and support during this journey. I am eager to get through surgery and get my "spare" kidney into Deb, where it can begin to do its new job!
