Several remarkable twists of fate led a New Jersey woman in need of a kidney donor to a man whose wife died after waiting two years on the organ donor list.
And it’s all thanks to a misplaced ad on Craigslist.
New Jersey resident Nina Saria was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease on July of 2014, which caused her kidneys to fail and forced her onto dialysis.
The then 31-year-old woman waited over a year on the organ donor list as her condition steadily worsened.
“I wanted to be able to see my child grow,” Saria told CBS News.
“I wanted to see him in the future. I didn’t want to die.”
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Offers from family and friends didn’t pan out because of organ compatibility issues. That’s when her husband Kay suggested they try placing an ad on popular classifieds site Craigslist.
“I ran out of options. I didn’t know what to do,” Kay Saria said in an interview with CBS correspondent Jamie Wax. “I just wanted a kidney for my wife and I wanted to help her and make her life normal again.”
So they placed an ad on Craigslist, which the site accidentally filed under the “building materials” section of the site.
Incredibly, that’s where a New Jersey man discovered the advertisement while searching for construction materials.
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“It was like the screen was talking to me,” Glenn Calderbank told the Associated Press. “I knew I was going to be a match for her. I thought about it, then emailed them and shared my story.”
His own wife, Jessica, had waited more than two years on the organ donor list after suffering a kidney failure of her own.
She eventually received a kidney transplant from a cadaver but her body rejected the organ. In 2011, she succumbed to her illness and passed away.
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Four years later, when Calderbank happened across a desperate appeal for a kidney with a blood type that matched his own on Craigslist, it seemed to him like an opportunity to be the saviour his wife never got.
“I remember once when she was in the hospital, I said, ‘If I could be there instead of you, I would,’” an emotional Calderbank told CBS News. “She’s probably laughing and saying, ‘here’s your chance.'”
Nina Saria says doctors have told her she has a good chance to live a long and healthy life, thanks to the stranger she only met through sheer chance.
“The doctors think I’ll be better once the transplant is done,” she said. “It should last a long time, they think, because I’m young and active and healthy other than my kidney now.”
“So, I really think (Glenn) can save me, and I can get my life back.”
-With files from the Associated Press
NOTE: The original version of this story listed the date of surgery as December 1st. Global News has since learned the surgery has been cancelled and our story has been updated accordingly. We will update the story as we learn more.
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