JaBraun Knox’s family is remembering the 23-year-old Army sergeant today at calling at an Auburn funeral home.Paying it forward, one kidney at a time
When Rick Ruzzamenti of Riverside, Calif., made the somewhat impulsive decision to donate a kidney, he probably didn’t know his selfless decision would lead not to one donation but 30.
In a heartwarming story that intermingled sacrifice and technology, the Sunday New York Times detailed how Ruzzamenti’s decision triggered 29 more transplants, each by someone whose donation was incompatible with a relative who needed a transplant but could be used by someone else. So the niece of the person who received Ruzzamenti’s kidney donated to someone else in Wisconsin; the ex-boyfriend of that recipient donated to someone else in Pittsburgh; and so on until 30 people received 30 kidneys.
“Children donated for parents, husbands for wives, sisters for brothers,” the story noted.
All of it was possible largely through the efforts of another man, Garet Hill, who formed the National Kidney Registry, persuaded numerous hospitals to share data about people who needed transplants and willing donors and led the development of a computer system to match donors and recipients.
