After seeing an alert on her Yahoo group, a New Jersey teacher decided to donate one of her kidneys to Brooklyn teenager Sofia Manfredi. Hit the jump to find out more!!
A Brooklyn teen is getting a new kidney this week – thanks to a New Jersey teacher who’s so thrilled to donate that she feels like she “won the lottery.”
“She’s helping me become a new person,” said 13-year-old Sofia Manfredi of Bensonhurst, who has severe damage in both kidneys from complications during her birth.
Sofia has relied on medication throughout her childhood, but her undersize kidneys couldn’t keep up with the demands of her growing body.
Last summer, Sofia’s family reached out to Chaya Lipschutz, who runs a kidney-donation matchmaker website, SaveA Life-DonateAKidney.com.
Lipschutz, who donated a kidney to a stranger in 2005 after seeing an ad in a newspaper, started her website in 2009. She declined to say how many matches she has made.
But when she sent out an alert about Sofia on her Yahoo! group, Cherry Hill teacher Jennifer Rothstein, 39, immediately volunteered one of her kidneys.
“It just felt like it was the right thing to do,” said Rothstein, who has two sons, ages 12 and 15. “I was blessed with good health. There was no reason not to.”
Testing over the last few months revealed that Rothstein was a perfect match for Sofia, and the transplant surgery is scheduled for Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.
“I feel like I won the lottery,” said Rothstein, who is banking on a two-week recovery. “It’s like giving birth. It’s giving life.”
The Manfredi family couldn’t be happier.
“It’s amazing that someone I’d never met before could be so giving,” said the girl’s mom, Tami Manfredi, 39. “She is giving my daughter a second chance.”
