Man Who Found Donor After Tweeting 'S**t, I Need A Kidney' Thanks Social Media For Saving His Life
A man suffering form kidney failure has thanked social media after a follower donated the organ which saved his life.
Musician Chris Strouth, from Minnesota, had been suffering with kidney disease for years before they failed in 2009.
The 53-year-old then began dialysis and, feeling rather helpless, turned to social media to tweet: "S**t, I need a kidney."
To his surprise, while Chris was at the movies, 19 of his followers responded and offered to get tested to see if they could be a match.
Chris told LADbible: "I just came back from watch whatever god-forsaken film I saw and two and a half hours later there was this incredible outpouring of support.
"There was a response, instantly between Twitter and Facebook.
"Before I even knew my blood type, people were volunteering theirs and doing all this research."
Despite the support, he still needed an appropriate donor with the same blood type.
That's when 56-year-old Scott Pakudaitis came in and offered to donate his kidney.
The pair were just casual acquaintances who knew of one another from the Minnesota music scene.
Chris added: "Scott was my donor and managed a band that worked with but I didn't really deal with him all that much.
"Scott is a great example, we didn't really know each other now I've spent major holidays with him and I just adore the guy."
Donor Scott told LADbible: "We knew each other enough to say hi to one another but that was it.
"I always admired Chris, as an artist, he's a very talented person and I thought 'well, if I have the opportunity to go and help someone I'm going to go on and take it'.
Scott was a statistician for 30 years and whilst looking at the data given to him by doctors, he made an informed decision to go through with it.
He said: "If I could do something that might give me discomfort for a couple of weeks versus helping somebody for many years, I'm gonna do that."
Despite a successful transplant in 2009, Chris is now back on dialysis but social media might have come to the rescue, yet again.
Chris revealed: "I'm going on dialysis 11 years to the date of when I had the first transplant, which kind of sucks."
However, the 53-year-old may have a potential donor due to a distant extended family member, who has got in touch with him via social media.
Chris says that the new donor might end up being his wife's long-distance cousin.
He said "Because of social media she was able to keep in touch with him...and it's sort of incredible.
"Despite my white hair, I'm still fairly young. I'm still the same age as Paul Rudd and I feel like I need a t-shirt that says that."
We wish Chris all the best with his upcoming treatment.
Topics: Social Media
Anish Vij