This story has appeared in literally hundreds of places, and I thought I might as well mention it too.
Tom Walter is the baseball coach for Wake Forest.
Wake Forest signed new hopeful Kevin Jordan last year
- nothing unusual so far.
Two months after this Jordan developed a serious kidney problem, which resulted in him needing regular dialysis. Jordan learned last April that he had ANCA vasculitis, an autoimmune swelling disorder caused by abnormal antibodies, and wound up on dialysis. The antibodies can cause blood and protein to leak into the urine and could result in kidney failure. And unfortunately his relatives were not a good match for a transplant.
Now the interesting bit - his coach Walter turned out to be a match for a kidney transplant to the new signing. So the coach decided to donate a kidney, and the transplant was carried out on 8th February. Both are said to be recovering normally.
Now I've heard of fans having a tattoo with their team's star player's name on it or something similar (which can be a bit of a problem if they sign for some other team a year or two later), or wearing shirts with the star's name on it (less of a problem if they leave the team). But giving a kidney to a player is a bit exceptional. So exceptional that I found 466 news pages mentioning this act of generosity!
You have to admire the man for doing this, of that there is no doubt.
I wonder if the coach would ask for it back if Jordan one day signed for another team...
