Man Donates Kidney to Cashier

Dan Coyne of Evanston, Illinois didn't know anything about Myra de la Vega, except that she was his favorite cashier at the grocery store where he shopped. Two years ago, he noticed her growing thin and asked about her health. She explained that she was on dialysis. Coyne offered to donate one of his kidneys to help her! De la Vega didn't know if he was serious, but when her sister turned out to be a poor match for a transplant, Coyne insisted on being tested. He was a match.

So, Friday morning, surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital will remove one of Coyne's healthy kidneys and transplant it to de la Vega, a 49-year-old Filipino immigrant and mother of two who was diagnosed with renal failure three years ago and has continued to work even as she's undergone dialysis ever since.

The transplant "will give me another 25 or 30 years of life," de la Vega, clearly still astounded by her customer's generosity, said Tuesday as she sat with Coyne at Pershing East Magnet School, 3113 S. Rhodes, where he works. "It's unbelievable: a complete stranger offering his kidney to me."

Coyne is a social worker at the school. His principal declared Tuesday as "Dan Coyne Day" at the school. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)