Landlord donates kidney to her tenant

Chicago Tribune ^ | 10/24/2009 | Amanda Marrazzo

[Saije]

The subject of James Love's precarious health came up one day last winter when his landlord was chatting with Love's wife about a leaky faucet.

Barbara Thomas, who rents a home to the couple and their six children in Sleepy Hollow, asked Shira Love what her husband needed to avoid kidney dialysis. Born with sickle cell anemia, he had endured years of excruciating pain and renal failure.

Shira Love told Thomas that he desperately needed a kidney but that it was hard to find a match because of his O-positive blood type.

"The second Shira said James needed a kidney, I knew," said Thomas, who is O-negative, a compatible blood type. "It was like I heard a voice saying in my head, 'It is you.' I didn't really think about it. I just did it."

Thomas donated a kidney Thursday to Love at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood. Both were expected to be discharged Saturday.

"She said, 'God showed me I was the one who is supposed to give you this kidney,' " James Love said Friday from his recovery room bed.

Thomas said she was sleepy but doing "just fine."

A legal secretary who lives in Brookfield, she said the hardest part was getting Love to hand over the doctor information to get started.

"He didn't really believe me, I think," she said.

Another person had offered him a kidney but then was unable go through with it. So Love, who has been on disability since 2005, said he was skeptical of Thomas' offer. But as she started going to all of her doctor's appointments and the two began communicating more often, he began to believe the transplant was going to happen.

[neverdem]

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