When Harold Mintz met Gennet Belay, a stranger to whom he had donated one of his kidneys some months earlier, he wondered how that kidney could have possibly fit inside her. He was a 6’5” tall man, and she was a “tiny” immigrant from Ethiopia, that had suffered for years and years due to an increasingly failing kidney...
But then she showed him the site of the surgery, and there it was: a little lump on the left side of her back, clearly visible under her skin – Harold’s giant kidney working perfectly inside its crowded new quarters...
Harold was the first living person in America to donate an organ to a complete stranger, after a change in legislation allowed this for the first time ever.
But what kind of person would even do that? In this episode, Rob Konrad asks him this and other burning questions, like: Was he afraid? Did he want to meet the recipient after the surgery? What if someone in his family needed a kidney down the line?
Harold shares a deeply personal story of encounters and experiences that led him to an ethical revelation that prizes two things above all else: life and fun.
Listen to the episode - and join the conversation now!
Watch the video of the conversation, read the show notes and the full transcript here:
https://www.robkonrad.com/podcast/conversations/001-harold-mintz/
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