Dynamist Blog

A Really Good Tipper

01donor-2.jpg A Tennessee man is donating a kidney to the waitress at a diner where he's a regular. Drew Harris of The Bartlett Express reports:

[Cindy] Boswell was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease in 1996 and now her kidneys function is at only 15 percent of the normal rate. For months she has been preparing for a kidney transplant--undergoing medical tests and filling out paper work--but has not been able to find a suitable donor. That changed one morning while she was filling up Dale Paulson's coffee at the cafe.

"He was a regular customer that I had been waiting on for about eight or nine months. For the longest time, I didn't even know his name--we called him the poached egg guy because that's what he always ordered," Boswell said. "One day, I was a little down and he asked me what was wrong. So I told him about my medical problems and that I needed a kidney. He told me that he would donate me one of his."

At first Boswell was taken aback. She didn't believe the words she had just heard. After all, she and Paulson had only been on a first name basis for about two weeks.

"I told him it was not something to joke about, that it wasn't very funny," Boswell said. "And that's when he said,"No, I am serious.'"

A year and a half earlier, Paulson offered to donate his kidney to his cousin in Michigan who had kidney disease. Surgery on Paulson's foot delayed the donation, and his cousin committed suicide under excruciating pain.

That event, combined with the unexpected death of his wife in 2003, planted the desire in Paulson's heart to help those in need. During these trying times, he believes God was preparing him to help Boswell.

Paulson's ability to turn tragedy into life-saving inspiration is admirable. Too bad some medical authorities don't respect the same sympathetic impulses when they arise from Internet communication rather than poached-egg orders.

Assuming final tests go well, the transplant should take place within a few weeks. A fund has been set up to help Boswell cover her out-of-pocket costs, including $1,500 a month (presumably for immunosupressant drugs) after the surgery and had already raised $8,000 before the article ran. Donations can be made to: City of Memphis Credit Union, c/o Cindy Boswell Transplant Fund, 2608 Avery Ave., Memphis, TN 38112.

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