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Central Florida heads to Mayo Clinic to give kidney to a stranger: The donor and recipient found each other on a matching donors websiteFeb 12, 2010 (The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Cindi Love is living up to her unusual last name. The 52-year-old Altamonte Springs woman is embarking on a selfless journey today, heading to Minnesota to donate one of her kidneys to a man she's never met. Last year, Love offered to donate a kidney to her nephew, who was struggling with dialysis. Although she wasn't a match for him, Love decided to find someone else who could use a kidney. "I saw everything that he went through, and it wasn't real pretty," she said. "When I started doing the research, I discovered that 10 people die each day waiting for a kidney." Determined to find someone who could use her kidney, Love inquired at her nephew's hospital in Indiana. But when she didn't hear anything, she went online and discovered http://www.matchingdonors.com , a website aimed at linking organ donors with people suffering from kidney disease. There, she read about Thomas Wirt, a 66-year-old former accountant and truck driver whose battle with polycystic kidney disease caused his kidneys to fail. The two shared the same blood type, so Love contacted him -- and sent a sample of her blood to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the hospital where Wirt receives his care. After months of extensive testing, doctors okayed the match, and next week, Love and Wirt will both undergo surgery. But Love isn't nervous, though the full recovery will take about six weeks. "What am I most worried about? I just want the kidney to work for him," she said. Linda Shrieves can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5433. To see more of The Orlando Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.OrlandoSentinel.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |