LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) — An Arkansas fire chief has donated a kidney to a teenager he didn’t know.
Maumelle Fire Chief Gerald Ezell tells KATV that the surgery took place Dec. 13, two days after he met 18-year-old Sidney Burnett of Granby, Missouri.
Ezell said that he discovered Burnett was in need when he saw a Facebook post from her mother, an old school friend. He realized they had the same blood type.
“I just felt like God was saying, ‘Hey, this is you,’” Ezell said. “Step across that line.”
The transplant was performed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Burnett is still in Minnesota recovering from the surgery.
“I was just so shocked that my donor was someone that had never even met me, but I’m so grateful for him,” she said. “He literally gave me my life back.”
