'He's My Guardian Angel': Kidney Recipient Meets Donor

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Jeanne Redpath, of Crafton, received a new kidney Valentine's Day, which also happened to be National Donor Day.

On the same day, her husband Mark donated a kidney to someone he never met. Jeanne's kidney came from a living donor she's never met, thanks to the National Kidney Chain.

There can be many links in a kidney chain. Here's how it works: If a loved one needs a kidney, but you are not a match, then you can donate your kidney to someone who is. And then yet another person, who could very well be a stranger, donates a kidney to your friend or family member.

Jeanne's first prospective donor dropped out at the last minute.

"Got a call for Feb. 1st, and that chain broke apart," her husband said. "And then we got a quick call and here we are, five days later."

"So we learned that the chain had come together in a smaller version, and it was still the same woman, it was destiny," Jeanne added. "She was gong to get his kidney."

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On Friday they met woman who received Mark Redpath's kidney at Allegheny General Hospital.

Evelyn Newman of East Liverpool, Ohio, said she was eager to meet the man who may have saved her life.

"He's my guardian angel," she said. "He's part of the family now. He'll always be my family."

Dr. Lorenzo Machado, the kidney donor surgeon, says living donors are heroes.