Woman finds kidney donor from misplaced Craigslist ad
Glenn Calderbank is giving the gift of life after stumbling on a Craigslist posting.
The 49-year-old New Jersey man is preparing to donate his kidney to a woman who would die without it -- someone who until very recently was a total stranger.
"I think this is very important," he told CBS Philadelphia. "So important, I'm risking my life for it. I can save somebody."
Those who know Calderbank wouldn't be surprised by his generosity, or the fact that he has been to the hospital a dozen times already in preparation for the transplant
But what is surprising is the series of coincidences and dumb luck that brought him to this point.
He had been looking in the material section of Craigslist for his job. He came across a posting -- mistakenly placed in that section -- begging for help to save the life of Egg Harbor, New Jersey, resident Nina Saria.
"Looking on Craigslist it struck my eye," Calderbank said. "Somebody was asking for a kidney for their wife."
Calderbank responded by asking Nina's blood type. It was A Positive -- same as his.
Within a week, Calderbank and Saria were sitting face-to-face.
"I said 'look, I know I'm a match.' She said 'how do you know that?' I said 'there's no way that I saw your ad by accident, we're the same blood type, and I'm not a match'." Testing confirmed he would in fact be a perfect donor.
The experience has an even deeper meaning for Calderbank because his late wife, Jessica, waited two years for a new kidney after hers started failing.
Eventually, she received one from a deceased donor. But when her body rejected it, she died on dialysis.
Now, four years later, Calderbank can help another family through the ordeal.
"I don't feel special," he said. "I just feel like somebody had to."