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Este informe no está disponible en español. THE NEW YORK TIMESA Stranger's Surprise Gift, and a Woman's Life ShinesBy SETH KUGEL
November 11, 2001 When Crystal Vazquez ate a banana on Nov. 1, it was Angel Candelaria's kidney that made it possible. Ms. Vazquez received a diagnosis of end- stage renal disease five years ago. Kidney failure prevents the body from excreting potassium, making bananas, which are rich in potassium, forbidden for people like her. She has been receiving dialysis at Montefiore Medical Center ever since. She could stop dialysis only if she received a kidney transplant. But no one in her family was an appropriate candidate, and for years she had been on a list of those awaiting kidneys from people who had recently died. Mr. Candelaria, 37, an operating room attendant at Montefiore, met Ms. Vazquez, 24, in August, when Dr. Stuart Greenstein asked him to soothe her nerves during a minor surgical procedure. Mr. Candelaria chatted with her in Spanish about their native Puerto Rico, where he had grown up. She asked about the angel tattoo on his left arm, and she told him that she had recently graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and wanted to be a lawyer. Then, although they had known each other for less than an hour, Mr. Candelaria made an unexpected offer. "If you and me match," he said, "you can have my kidney." Mr. Candelaria, who lives in Norwood in the Bronx with his girlfriend and her two daughters, offered a simple explanation for his remarkable proposition. "I saw her as somebody so young, with so many ambitions," he said. "I said, maybe I'm going to help her." Ms. Vazquez had another explanation. "On Aug. 28," she said, "I met my guardian angel." When Dr. Greenstein realized that Mr. Candelaria was serious, he made sure that their blood and tissue types matched. Then began the long process of physical and psychological testing required of donors. Mr. Candelaria reminded himself that he had assisted in many kidney donor operations, and the patients, he recalled, were always O.K. The operation has been the talk of the operating-room floor. Mr. Candelaria's co- workers wondered at his generosity. "Some people ask me: `Oh, are you going to get money for this? Are you in love with the lady?' "It's not money," he said. "It's not love." Then he reconsidered. "Well, it is love. She's a beautiful person." Despite dialysis, Ms. Vazquez, who lives with her family on the Grand Concourse, had managed to graduate from John Jay and start a master's program there. But it was hard. "Dialysis was my life," she said. "Before Angel came along, I was going four times a week, for four and a half hours." She had almost received a transplant in May, after a match was found with a boy who had died in Massachusetts. But after she was under anesthesia, the donor kidney was found to be damaged, and the operation was called off. This time, nothing went wrong. On Oct. 31, Dr. Julio Texeira removed Mr. Candelaria's left kidney, which Dr. Greenstein then implanted in Ms. Vazquez. Mr. Candelaria, who is already home and mobile, will return to work in about a month. Ms. Vazquez is expected to leave the hospital this week. "With a functioning kidney, she should have a normal life," said Dr. Greenstein, noting that if she had remained on dialysis she would not be able to have children. But for now, it was thrilling enough just to recall her first banana since the surgery. "Once you have it in your mouth, it's like M&M's," Ms. Vazquez said. "I was in heaven."
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