Catalina Lifeguard Leaves Rescue Buoy on Beach, Donates Kidney to Save a Life

LAist | Lauren Lloyd

Donating items like clothes, kitchenware and sports equipment is quite common among friends, neighbors and co-workers. But donating an organ is not. Two Harbors' Baywatch Captain Lance Dempsey will donate one of his kidneys to Two Harbors Harbor Patrolman Dave Coiner, granting Coiner a new lease on life.

The transplant will take place today at County USC University Hospital after months of testing. Coiner, 57, learned about two years ago that he suffers from Polycystic renal disease (PKD), a cystic genetic disorder of the kidneys. His expectations never included receiving a donor organ.

“A lot of the learning curve in life is learning to accept things that you can’t change. I just accepted that this is my condition - it could change, but it might not. It is astonishing to me that anybody would be willing to give me this kind of a gift. I was also surprised anytime anyone said they wanted to get tested. I hardly know how to describe it, but for somebody to be willing to go through something like this is such an incredible gift. The compassion and the generosity are off the scale, beyond expectations,” said Coiner.

Dempsey, 43, heard from a mutual friend that Coiner's blood type is "O-." As a carrier of "O+" the captain knew he had to help.

Read more: http://laist.com/2011/09/12/catalina_lifeguard_donates_kidney.php