Donor Search Success Stories

Austin Lee, a 34-year-old Silver Spring Maryland resident, knows what it feels like to be impacted by kidney disease early in life. The two-time kidney transplant recipient was born with a rare birth defect called posterior urethral valves.

After nearly four years of waiting for a matching donor, Madison-Ridgeland Academy head football coach Herbert Davis is finally getting a new kidney thanks to Leah Cox, an MRA parent. The two will be part of a six-person organ swap—the largest in Mississippi history.

The owner of a popular restaurant in Norwalk has a second chance at life. Andrew Sayasane, owner of Winn’s Pizza in Norwalk, started looking for a life-saving kidney donor in July. In October, he got the call that his friend’s fiancee was a perfect match.

About two years ago, Nino DiGiulio put a bumper sticker on his truck in hopes of changing his life — and it is finally paying off.

Nearly a year after her kidneys went into failure, Katie Hallum posted a TikTok. “POV: I overhear you say you have an O blood type and healthy kidneys,” the caption read. Then, Hallum lip-synced a line from “The Mandalorian”: “You have something I want.” The TikTok appeared on Savannah Stallbaumer’s feed. She wanted to help.

How did a kidney donation from one veteran to another originate? Morgan Slaughter saw a sign—literally. While scrolling Facebook looking for a new restaurant to try, the Air Force veteran noticed a post of a sign: an U.S. Air Force veteran needed a kidney.

Mark Rasmussen had two good kidneys, and wanted to give one away. Brad Hill was facing death without a kidney transplant. Near-strangers a year ago, the two men are now recovering from surgery last week, with one of Mr. Rasmussen’s healthy kidneys on the job for each of them.

In August 2022, Tania Grgurich, a diagnostic imaging professor at Quinnipiac University, spotted a Facebook post from former student Samantha Markham, who was in dire need of a kidney transplant. Grgurich immediately called the Center for Living Organ Donors at Yale New Haven Hospital to volunteer as her donor.

Three years ago, on his birthday, Jason donated his kidney through the NKR’s Voucher Program so his fiancée, Melissa LoStracco, could get a kidney. That kidney came from Tracie Herman. Three years later, Tracie officiated their wedding.

Destiny, luck, or perhaps a touch of divine intervention came together when Pastor Shane Webb’s desire to become an organ donor was answered: the granddaughter of a member of his congregation needed a kidney. He said, “Well, you can have one of mine.”