Electrical worker donates kidney to coworker's wife

Electrical worker donates kidney to coworker's wife

Leigh Munsil
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 27, 2007 04:29 PM

Gabriel Bennett was working overtime on a Saturday morning in July shutting down a city block for a Scottsdale-based electrical company when he made a split-second decision that changed his life and saved another.

The 28-year-old Gilbert resident had noticed that his coworker at Jen Service, Brian McMichael, had been down lately, and asked him what was wrong.

McMichael told Bennett that his wife Shannon, 33, had been put back on dialysis after her body started rejecting a kidney transplant she received in 1999.

"It was just a spontaneous decision," Bennett said. When he learned that he and Shannon shared a blood type, O positive, Bennett volunteered to give her a kidney.

"I was like, 'OK, I'll donate a kidney if you guys need it,' " he said, "And that was it."

Bennett had never met Shannon.

"He was pretty much all the way through with testing before I met him," Shannon said. The two finally met at the company Christmas party this December.

Bennett said one of the reasons he decided to help Shannon was her 10-year-old son.

"I'm happy I could help them - her and her family," Bennett said.

He has a 15-month-old son of his own, and said that no child should lose a parent at a young age.

"My wife was completely supportive of my decision," Bennett said. "She's been by my side the whole time."

Bennett and Shannon went into surgery at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix at 8 a.m. Wednesday, and they both said they are recovering well.

"He's a hero," Shannon said. "I'm grateful for dialysis, but it's definitely no way to live.

"I feel like I've been reborn."

http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/1227abrk-kidney1227.html