DNA Test Leads to a Kidney Donation and Second Chance at Life – The Wall Street Journal

More than 7,000 living donors give a kidney or part of a liver each year to a blood relative in the U.S., according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. In the era of DNA testing, as families circles widen to discover new blood relations, the potential for donor matches will increase.

On a Thursday morning in 2016, Mindy Towns prepared to make a phone call that would end up taking her to a hospital bed halfway across the country. She couldnt have known it, but she was about to connect with a seriously ill half-brother who had lost nearly everything in a plane crasheven, perhaps, his will to live.

On this February morning, Ms. Towns was simply looking to connect with the man she believed to be her birth father. Now 56 years old, she had grown up in an era when most adoption records were secret. It had taken her more than 30 years of sleuthing to find Daryl Wedan.

To prove it, I was going to have to call him, Ms. Towns said. It was the longest day of my life. I set up my computer with the family tree and papers. I was so nervous, I wrote myself a script.

When he got the call, Mr. Wedan hung up on her. I was actually at my grandsons karate class, he said. I thought it was a sales call or something, and I didnt quite hear her properly so I hung up on her. Later I saw it was a Florida number, and I thought I better call that number back.

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DNA Test Leads to a Kidney Donation and Second Chance at Life - The Wall Street Journal