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Mayor Gives Kidney to Facebook Pal

Responded to constituent's 'no match' status update

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 22, 2010 11:45 AM CDT

(Newser) – See, Facebook is good for something: It could score you a much-needed kidney. Connecticut mayor April Capone Almon donated one of hers to a constituent after reading about his plight on the social networking site. Carlos Sanchez was one of her 1600 “friends”—but, as is commonplace in the world of Facebook, the two were really more like casual acquaintances before his illness brought them together.

Sanchez posted the status update as a recommendation from his doctor after none of his friends or family members tested as a match. “I really felt from the very beginning that I was going to be a match and a donor. I don't know why, but I just knew it,” Capone Almon tells the AP. Sanchez, at first, “thought she was joking,” he says, but on April 8, the successful transplant occurred.

Kidney recipient Carlos Sanchez poses for a photograph, April 21, 2010. East Haven Mayor April Capone Almon donated her kidney after Sanchez posted a status update on Facebook.
Kidney recipient Carlos Sanchez poses for a photograph, April 21, 2010. East Haven Mayor April Capone Almon donated her kidney after Sanchez posted a status update on Facebook.   (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 2 comments
wtf_wtf
Apr 22, 2010 6:15 PM CDT
good people in the world... hmm
Woofer58
Apr 22, 2010 4:51 PM CDT
Hey Michael, good call on this story !! We need more uplifting stuff like this to read. Gets tiring (though fun) to only have politically charged stuff out here on Newser. Hope to see more stories like this.
I think we all need an occasional reminder that are fellow citizens aren't all idiots.

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