FIND A PATIENT
NTAF Community Hero - Larry Macdonald
09/25/2008
News
NTAF Community Hero - Larry Macdonald
Date Posted: 09/25/2008
NTAF Community Hero Submission from Deborah Rosenbeck
Edited and adapted by Shannon McMonagle, NTAF E-News Editor.
Larry Macdonald donated a kidney to my husband, Jim, and gave him his life back. It is an amazing story.
Jim and Larry had a chance meeting playing fantasy baseball on the computer. They struck up an online relationship related to the game. Because of the proximity of where we live in relation to Larry, we decided to meet. (Larry has made friends with, and met many of the people that he plays baseball with online.)
We met Larry and his wife, Virginia, about five years ago and developed a quick and easy friendship. We visited back and forth periodically. We loved going to Toronto. Larry introduced us to amazing food, and we attended baseball games. When staying for the weekend, we would occasionally attend church with them too.
We continued to travel to visit Larry, even after Jim learned he had polycystic kidney disease. During a visit for a Red Sox series with the Toronto Blue Jays, Jim had to return home early because he was so ill. He missed seeing Curt Schilling pitch the Sunday game, one of his favorite pitchers. Jim is a die hard Red Sox fan, which Larry was well aware. Larry knew that if Jim was missing the Red Sox game, he must be pretty sick. It was then that the idea occurred to him that he could donate a kidney, and help his new friend to feel better.
Jim began dialysis that fall; Larry began the arduous process of becoming a living donor.
In September 2007, we traveled to the Cleveland Clinic, meeting Larry, his wife and father there. The evening prior to the surgery, we prayed together. Everyone was pretty nervous, especially Larry’s wife, Virginia. What an amazing sacrifice – a man who had never been sick or injured enduring surgery for a friend.
The surgery went very well, and now we joke about the similarities among Larry and Jim, because Jim now has a part of Larry in him. The Lord has certainly blessed us. He has led us to this amazing friendship and to the most selfless act we will ever witness. Larry is my hero for sure.
Larry is a quiet and unassuming man. His view of the situation was “I had a kidney that I wasn’t using”. He also indicated that we have few chances in life to do something courageous and really make a difference. He saw this as his chance. During one conversation after the transplant, Larry explained his actions to us. To paraphrase what he said: ‘You think I’m a nice guy and I do a lot to help others, but really I pretty much just take care of me. … This was my chance to really do something that wasn’t about me, but in the long run it was because of how it made me feel.’
