CHICAGO (Reuters) – As tips go, Chicago limousine driver
Abdul Faraj got a priceless one this week when one of his
regular customers offered up a kidney, media reports said.
Faraj and Minnesota businessman Dave Baker underwent
transplant surgeries at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial
Hospital.
“He gave me part of his body. He saved my life,” Faraj, a
diabetes sufferer whose kidneys were failing despite a
three-times-a-week dialysis regime, told area television
stations.
Baker has used Faraj, a native of Lebanon, as his driver on
trips to Chicago for several years. Making small talk months
ago, Baker learned of Faraj’s poor health and struggle to find
a kidney donor with a matching blood type.
“At that time, he tells me, ‘What’s your blood type?’ I
tell him O-positive,” Faraj said. “He said, ‘I’m 0-positive.
I’ll give you one.”‘
Baker is out of the hospital and expected to fully recover
within weeks.
“This was an opportunity to stop, slow down, take a look
around and try to help someone,” Baker told local television.
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