Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette. Marina Pfenning reaches over her fiance, Tony Balko, to help Bob Harper with his pin from CORE and the National Kidney Foundation. Mr. Harper received a kidney transplant last Wednesday, and Mr. Balko was the donor.
This Christmas morning, Bob Harper gets to have his life back.
As presents under the tree go, that's a pretty big gift, but this one's especially sweet: His kidney transplant last Wednesday was made possible by old friends, whose own son died of kidney failure in 2009.
"I am overwhelmed with gratitude," said Mr. Harper, who is not only close to Nancy and Frank Pfenning of Squirrel Hill, but was a friend to their son Nils, who died at age 21 after two decades of fighting kidney disease.
During his lifetime, Nils Pfenning received two transplants, one from his mother and one from his uncle, and a week ago today, Mr. Harper, 56, of Squirrel Hill received a kidney donated by Nils' sister Marina Pfenning's fiance, Tony Balko.
Mr. Harper was operated on by Amit Tevar, a transplant surgeon at the Thomas E. Starzl Center for Transplantation at UPMC.
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"You have the power to SAVE lives."
To register as a donor in California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.
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