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Man Finds Kidney Donor—on Craigslist

Normal wait would have been 6 years

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted Feb 18, 2009 4:25 PM CST

(Newser) – Daniel Flood may owe his life to Craigslist—and his three tech-savvy daughters who posted a plea for a kidney on the classifieds site. After his lone kidney was damaged, Flood faced years of waiting for a donor matching his rare blood type. His daughters sifted through more than 100 responses—some of them frauds—and found donor Dawn Verdick, who had been searching for volunteer opportunities, CNN reports.

"I turned it over to the universe early on. And I just said, 'If it's meant to be, then I will qualify, and if it's not, I won't,'" says Verdick, 48. One medical ethicist expressed unease about circumventing the usual donor list but said he couldn't object on free-speech grounds. "There is nothing illegal in advertising or in using the Web for personal or health reasons," he said. "Altruistic organ donors have the legal right to designate recipients."

[Images (3)]

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Craigslist.org CEO Jim Buckmaster, left, and founder Craig Newmark in a 2005 file photo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, file)

Craigslist has come through for a man who needed a new kidney. (Flickr)

This screenshot shows Craigslist, the site where Flood found a kidney donor. (Craigslist)

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What if I'm hit by a bus tomorrow? There's a lot of 'what ifs.' I don't live in 'what if.' I live in the 'what is.' - Verdick, on the risk of kidney failure following her donation

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Man Finds Kidney Donor—on Craigslist