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Living his best life as a scuba diver in the Keys, Nick Kolor, known as “Cuda” like barracuda, made a life-changing decision at just 25 years old.
He wanted to donate one of his kidneys.
“I decided it really was impossible to justify not giving up the kidney. I don’t need it. Someone else does. It was pretty straightforward,” he said.
Kolor decided to donate one of his kidneys to anyone who needed it, a stranger.
“The thought process should be, you know, what goes around, comes around. There’s millions of other 25, give or take, year olds walking around to have a perfectly healthy spare kidney. It is a spare part. You don’t, you don’t need it. There’s no clinical necessity there,” he said.
Honored to save a life
After passing the screening process, Kolor was on the operating table at Memorial Regional Hospital.
Hours later, he was told his kidney had gone to a child who was on the waitlist for three years.
“The surgeon came and visited pretty right after I woke up and told me it went to a 9-year-old boy. It was successful, that’s all that matters,” Kolor said.
He got to meet that little boy, just briefly.
“There was a thumbs-up exchange that we had… that was cute,” he recalled.
Transplant surgeon and former patient applaud Kolor’s decision
Dr. Linda Chen is a transplant surgeon at Memorial Regional.
“Altruistic donors who just are so selfless that they want to give an organ, that really touches my heart, because I know that there is good in this world,” she said.
Lisa Mananzan knows the anxiety of waiting for a kidney.
“I’m one that has receiving end of it, and I’m so incredibly grateful for people like Nick,” she said.
She, too, received a kidney from a living donor a year ago.
“I have a new lease on life, and I’m going to take full advantage of it. And I’m very proud of what Nick did, just absolutely amazing,” she said.
A new life-saving mission
Now, Kolor is on a mission. He started an organization called “The Spare Parts Project” to encourage other 20-somethings to give a life-saving gift.
“Donate life. Give a piece of yourself. You know, it’s just, it’s too easy,” he said.
For more information on kidney donation, visit: https://www.mhs.net/services/transplant/kidney-transplant.
