90 minutes isn’t a whole lot of time. In fact, it’s just barely the standard length of a feature film. However, in the time-frame of searching for organ transplants, 90 minutes is merely a blink of an eye. The successful pairing of organ donors and those requiring transplants can take months. But, for one lucky man, his search for a kidney transplant was completed before theater-goers would even see the credits roll. How did he accomplish this? It may come as a surprise, but his tool of choice was Facebook.
Using Facebook to find a donor
Eddie, whose kidneys had shut down after rotator-cuff surgery and needed dialysis three times a week, decided on January 1st that he was “going to take the bull by the horns” and take his search for kidney donors to the next level. In a move reflecting our increasingly inter-connected world, instead of relying on a donor list, Eddie logged into Facebook. Checking out the Living Kidney Donor Network Facebook page, Eddie happened across a post from a user who stated that she wanted to donate her kidney to an anonymous recipient. Eddie replied to this message, and the rest is nearly history: Eddie and the donor will undergo surgery on April 2nd.
Without Facebook, it is almost certain that these two would have never met. They were complete strangers separated by over 3,000 miles. But by harnessing the power of Facebook to instantly connect people regardless of their location, Eddie was, in fact, able to “grab life by the horns” in what almost certainly felt like a Hollywood movie ending.
