Category: Living Donor

LI TRIO Member and Friend Receives Surprise Visit From Kidney Donor

LI TRIO Member and Friend Avram Gabay received a surprise visit on Friday from a woman who gave him the gift of life.

Friday was not the first time Avram Gabay, 67, of Merrick had exchanged embraces with Jennifer Wolfe of Atlanta, Georgia. But the surprise and the celebration of life never get old.

“She saved my life actually,” Gabay said. “She saved my life.” He got together once again Friday with Jennifer Wolfe, who donated her kidney to him. The two connected thanks to Gabay’s son Brian, who wrote a letter describing his father’s situation on the Matching Donors website. Wolfe, who is also blood type O, saw the post and wanted to help.

Opinion-New York Times-Finding Organ Donors Concealed in Plain Sight

If the potential for living organ donation could be realized, it would save thousands of lives each year in the United States. In one poll, one in four people questioned said that they would be willing to donate a kidney to save the life of a stranger.

But in 2015, only 6,000 living people actually donated organs across the country, leaving more than 121,000 people remaining on waiting lists for a transplant. The vast majority need kidneys or livers. Most wait years for an organ; thousands die before one arrives.