Westminster man finds kidney donor on Internet (matchingdonors.com)

[okarol]

Westminster man finds kidney donor on Internet (matchingdonors.com)

Tammy Vigil
tammy.vigil@kdvr.com
10:48 p.m. MDT, May 5, 2011

 
WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- There are 100,926 people waiting for an organ transplant in the United States.  Last year, only 2,406 received a transplant, meaning 19 people die every day.

But a Westminster man is one of the lucky ones, thanks to the world's largest living donor database.

61-year-old Walter Rassback will get a new kidney from 42-year-old California woman Friday morning at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver.

They found each other on a website that matches organ donors with organ recipients.  The two will be the 144th transplant since the launch of MatchingDonors.com in 2004.

"I wrote her an email and called her," says Rassbach of Laurie Wood, a total stranger he contacted in early February.

He asked her to save his life.

"Being on dialysis is a horrible thing. It's a box," says a tearful Rassbach.  "You have no freedom."

His kidneys are failing him and he says he wouldn't have live the average five year wait to get a kidney from a deceased donor on a national waiting list.

"I had no alternative than a live donor," he says.

So he turned to MatchingDonors.com, where those who need organs search out those willing to donate for free.

Wood was one of them.

She's a wife and mother of two, and now she's a savior to one.

"It's probably the most intense relationship I've ever had since my wife.  She's a sister, daughter to me now," says Rassbach.

She wrote back to Rassbach, saying, "I'd be interested in helping with your journey and recovery.  I'm a mother of a 22-year-old daughter in college and a 19-year-old son in college, as well.  I know how important family is."

"Is she saving my life? Yes. Do I appreciate it? You bet your little bippy," he says.

So, 89 days after that first email, Rassbach will receive the gift of life, and he knows that he beat the odds.

"I had a friend die three months ago for exactly that, and he won't get to see me transplanted," says Rassbach through tears.

Because of his gift, the computer engineer says he will dedicate his life to increasing donor awareness.

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-westminster-man-finds-kidney-donor-on-internet-20110505,0,2814585.story