Man's 'unbelievable' gift to his favorite Jewel cashier: a kidney

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Man's 'unbelievable' gift to his favorite Jewel cashier: a kidney
His 'easy decision' will spare her eight hours of dialysis each evening
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March 24, 2010
BY KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter kjanssen@suntimes.com

As supermarket specials go, this one sounded too good to be true:

One grade-A, healthy, human kidney -- for free.

Myra de la Vega, a cashier at a Jewel-Osco store in Evanston, thought that the man she knew only from her checkout line was joking when he told her he'd donate the organ she so desperately needs.

But Dan Coyne, a Chicago Public Schools social worker, was serious.

So, Friday morning, surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital will remove one of Coyne's healthy kidneys and transplant it to de la Vega, a 49-year-old Filipino immigrant and mother of two who was diagnosed with renal failure three years ago and has continued to work even as she's undergone dialysis ever since.

The transplant "will give me another 25 or 30 years of life," de la Vega, clearly still astounded by her customer's generosity, said Tuesday as she sat with Coyne at Pershing East Magnet School, 3113 S. Rhodes, where he works. "It's unbelievable: a complete stranger offering his kidney to me."

Coyne has been a regular at de la Vega's Jewel for years, always choosing her checkout line because she's so cheerful.

Two years ago, he noticed she'd lost weight and didn't look well, and he asked: Are you OK?

She told him about her condition, how she has to undergo dialysis every night for eight hours and how, though she could survive for many years on dialysis, it left her weak and exhausted.

Coyne, 52, listened. Then, he told her: I could donate a kidney for you.

She hardly knew him, didn't know if he really meant it and still was hoping her sister would turn out to be a good match for a transplant.

But, when it turned out her sister wasn't a good match, Coyne offered again. That was just before last Thanksgiving.

Last month, tests confirmed Coyne's kidney would be a good match.

His wife, Emily, was apprehensive, he said, but was reassured when she found out he could live a healthy life with just one kidney.

He doesn't see what he's doing as anything extraordinary.

"It was an easy decision," Coyne said. "All I have to do is fall asleep on a table, and then the doctors take over.

"Dodging potholes on Lake Shore Drive" is scarier, he said.

But Antonia Hill, his principal at Pershing East, was amazed. "This is typical Dan -- he's such a giving guy," said Hill, who declared Tuesday was "Dan Coyne Day" at the South Side school and organized lessons to teach kids about giving back.

Nationwide, more than 84,000 people suffering from kidney failure are awaiting transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Most who get a kidney transplant get one when someone dies and that person's family agrees to donate their organs. The number of "living donors" is rising, but they still account for less than a quarter of all kidney transplants.

And most living donors are relatives, not strangers.

Coyne and de la Vega might have been strangers before. But no longer.

"She's family now," said Coyne, who met de la Vega's relatives at her home this past weekend. "We're all very close."

Close to tears and clutching Coyne's hand, de la Vega seemed momentarily overwhelmed at being the center of attention Tuesday.

"I could kill you, Dan!" she joked -- "but not until after Friday!"

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2119428,CST-NWS-kidney24.article