Professor Ron Ehrenberg of Cornell University had been looking for a kidney donor for over five years. All of her friends and family had taken compatibility tests, but no suitable candidates had been found.
The man was linked to the hospital, where he had to “recharge” the dialysis machine every two days. The good news came when Professor Ehrenberg had already accepted his situation and no longer hoped for anything.
The hospital announced that a living donor had been found for him. The man preferred to remain anonymous, but Ron really wanted to know the name of his savior. He asked the hospital to forward his request to the donor.
The next day, the man received an email from Adam Seth Litvin, a colleague with whom he had worked at the university for about seven years.
Adam said that after his mother-in-law died, he seriously considered donating. He loved his wife’s mother dearly and was deeply affected by her loss.
When he learned that his colleague was ill, Adam proposed his application to the hospital. It matched Ron’s blood type.
But due to his frail health, he was not allowed to become a donor. So Adam set himself a goal: to lose weight and get stronger. She went on a diet and lost about 11 pounds in a year.
He managed to stabilize his blood sugar level and normalize other parameters that did not satisfy doctors in the past.
For the entire second year, he kept the results and in the spring he convinced the specialists that he was ready for a transplant.
According to Adam, by donating a kidney to his colleague, he wanted not only to prolong his life, but also to teach his children a lesson in love and compassion towards others.
No one expected such a gesture from Adam, who had a reputation for being stingy and unfriendly. Now the man is considered a hero in his hometown.
According to Ron, he owes a lot to his colleague. “I don’t even have a lifetime to repay the good he’s done,” he says.
Ron plans to devote the years Adam has given him to make up for the time irrevocably lost to a serious illness.
The man longs to spend more time with his family, his children and grandchildren that he has only seen in five long years.
