Steve Legros, Living Donor

"It was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my entire life"...

In 1994 my father-in-law passed away while awaiting a potential heart and lung transplant. At that point, I determined that I would be an organ donor. Fast forward to 2006, a friend/coworker of mine was in need of a kidney transplant. Ironically, this friends father was my supervisor and his grandfather was a close friend of my father-in-law. Both Dusty and I work for the fire department. Dusty was adopted and had no blood relatives available to be a donor. Another member of the Fire Department, who is also a living donor to his brother, began to compile a list of volunteers that would be willing to donate to Dusty. I added my name to that list, and after the first two volunteers were unable to donate, due to their medical screenings, it was my turn. I remember the day that I was called and said I needed to go and begin the process for screening. I said, let’s do this! I began the screening process in March 2006 and within a couple of weeks it was determined that I would be a match. The next several weeks were a bit of a whirlwind of appointments and consultations and in June 2006, Dusty and I arrived for surgery. We sat in preop next door to each other and joked about what would it look like on the other side of this. We had the most amazing team at Banner Health in Phoenix. I can say without reservation, that it was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my entire life. Aside from some postop pain, it couldn’t have turned out better! Ironically, Dusty has since been promoted to Fire Chief, and I am now a Support Services Captain working with him. This process strengthened our bond as friends and we are now like brothers, seeing Dusty‘s recovery and his ability to go back to work, was worth it! He has been given the opportunity to continue his career over the last 17 years, something that would not have been possible without a new kidney.