Brant- Living Kidney Donor

Brant was scrolling through Facebook one afternoon in January 2020 when a post from a friend caught his eye. Brant had coached this young man in little league basketball and baseball nearly 15 years before, now grown with a family of his own.  His Facebook post explained that his mother-in-law was suffering from chronic kidney disease and receiving a kidney transplant was her only hope at survival.

Immediately, Brant felt called to help this family and thought, “What if that were my mother-in-law, my mom, my wife, or one of my kids?”.  Brant felt God speak to him through prayer and said “I was willing to give you my Son, are you willing to sacrifice so that someone else may have a life?”.

Brant went online and contacted the University of Kentucky Transplant Center and expressed that he wished to donate to this particular person if he was a match. After much testing, Brant was determined to be a compatible match. The transplant was scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020, but just two days before the antigens had changed. The surgery had to be canceled.  Brant wondered “Why?  Why God would you call me to do this and then stop the process?”.

Together, Brant and the intended recipient decided to join the National Kidney Registry as an Exchange Pair. This meant that Brant could donate to someone else in need and she would receive a kidney from another donor.  This meant that now not only one person would receive a new kidney, but multiple pairs of donors/recipients could be joined in a “chain” and all receive kidneys, based on cross-matching all the pairs.

In late December, UK informed Brant that a match had been found.  Final blood work was done to confirm everything just a few days before surgery.  On January 27, 2021, Brant donated a kidney to a stranger in Arizona. He was told that his recipient is doing well and on track to a healthy life.  While his original intended recipient is still waiting, their wait time will likely be dramatically cut because of Brant’s altruistic gift.

“Please consider being a donor to literally give someone life.”