On A Positive Note: A Stranger's Donation Gives A Woman A New Lease On Life
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A new show on CBS premiered on Thursday called "B Positive."
The premise of the show, a comedy, is something not usually laughed at - organ donation.
However, it turns out, that premise is not too far far-fetched and it's happening in real life, here in Pittsburgh.
On one beautiful day in the making, a hug between two strangers was nine months in the making.
One of them sick, one of them selfless.
"I've always liked helping people, in very realistic terms, like you need food? I'll get you food," said Jessica Armstrong, a kidney donor. "If you need clothes, I'll get you clothes."
Still, the leap from clothes and food to a body part is a large one.
"I said, 'what?'" Asked Asia Hush, the recipient of the kidney. "I said, 'Who is crazy enough to just dole out body parts like that, this one, right?'"
The idea came to Armstrong without any fanfare.
"It was [when I] was sitting in the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru," Armstrong recalled. "It was backed up and I glanced over and on the back of a Jeep..."
A sign - asking for a living donor with a phone number.
"It got me thinking, how do you even do that? How do you donate an organ? So, I Googled it," Armstrong said.
That's where Dr. Amit Tevar and his transplant team came in.
"When I talk to donors, I tell them afterward, you truly saved someone's life," Dr. Tevar said. "You not only made a difference in the quality of the life; you made a difference in the length of their life."
When it comes to dialysis patients like Hush, they usually wait 5 or 6 years.
"So imagine you're on dialysis, you'll wait 5-6 years before you get the first phone call," Dr. Tevar explained. "If you have a live donor, you're going to get a transplant within a month from when the donor becomes available."
For Hush, this gift means another chance.
"I want to feel better and be better and do better, and I hope this can rub off on my kids and they can see there are good people," Hush said. "People in lines at Dunkin' possibly just wanting to donate a kidney."
For people like Armstrong, it's another chance to show kindness.
"Pursue it, because it took one night at the hospital," Armstrong said. "It was such a quick, easy procedure to give someone a second chance at life."
The end of Hush's sickness marks the start of a new friendship.
"To be able to associate that act of kindness to a person, that's what got me," Hush said. "Like, man, I'm holding the person who gave me another chance and to make sure that I was there for my kids.'
