My Kidney, is Life

The Washington Post

In April of 2008, I donated my left kidney to a perfect stranger so that my dad could receive a kidney from yet another stranger. Four donors gave to four people they had never met before in the largest kidney exchange to date in the Midwest. All did it to save their loved ones.

This short documentary is a personal story about the fears, concerns and joys experienced throughout the donation process. It’s about having the opportunity to save my father’s life yet having to risk my own to do it. What if something happened to me in surgery? How would my absence affect my eight year-old boy? How could I refuse the opportunity to help my father?

Viewers are often exposed to the technical aspects of organ donation but rarely experience the added intimate human side. This story takes exposes the mental and emotional journey I went through as a live donor.

Winner of the 2009 National Capital Chesapeake Bay Emmy Award