Montclair teacher saves friend with gift of a kidney

[Clark]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/health/135226633_The_gift_that_changed_two_lives.html

Montclair teacher saves friend with gift of a kidney
BY GEORGE WIRT

MHS teacher donates kidney to save friend

Len Basile never imagined he would ever be in a situation where he could save a person's life, but when the opportunity presented itself recently, he didn't hesitate for a second.

"The decision was made in a millisecond," the 56-year-old Montclair High School biology teacher said. "I just knew I was going to do it."

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NJ Sharing Network (www.sharenj.org, 1-800-SHARE-NJ)
Donate Life NJ (www.donatelifenj.org)
Lions Eye Bank of NJ (www.lionseyebanknj.org)
NJ Organ and Tissue Sharing Network (1-800-ShareNJ)
Gift of Life Donor Program (1-800-Donors-1)
United Network for Organ Sharing (www.unos.org)
You can add the donor designation on your New Jersey driver’s license or ID card. For more information, visit http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/Licenses/organ_donor.htm

What Basile did was to step up and donate one of his kidneys to a good friend and fishing buddy who didn't have long to live unless he could find a transplant.

"I belong to the Hudson River Fishing Association, and my buddy Big Mike is a member of the club," Basile told The Times this past Monday after returning to his ninth-grade classroom following a three-week long medical leave.

"We've known each other for about seven or eight years," Basile said. "We're a close-knit group of people who fish together. Mike has had diabetes forever. About a year ago, in November, he told us he was in need of a transplant."

It came as a bit of a shock to the club members. Even more worrisome was the news that Mike was running into problems finding a kidney donor. Doctors couldn't find a match among his family members and they had turned to what they describe as a "round robin" donation chain to find a match.

In desperation one day, Basile remembers Big Mike turning to his fishing buddies and asked them "in case the 'round robin' falls through, would you guys consider helping me out?"

"He only had months to go," Basile recalled. "We all decided we were going to talk about it, and we did. I excused myself and I went over and sat down next to Mike. Something came over me, and I said to myself: 'you're going to do it.'"

With Big Mike at his side, Basile remembers leaning over to him and saying, "When all is said and done, and they put you on the table, I'll be on the table next to you."

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