Photo: Courtesy Samira Jafari
Richard Roth, CNN’s senior U.N. correspondent, is praising his “heroine” colleague for saving his life with a kidney transplant.
In September, the veteran journalist wrote a letter to his coworkers sharing his need for a kidney after revealing the first “valiant” one he received from a deceased donor 25 years ago was “rapidly dying inside me,” CNNreports.
Doctors learned that Roth and Jafari were a match and, this past weekend, she donated one of her kidneys in a successful surgery, according to the outlet.
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During CNN’slive broadcastMonday, Roth gave an update since returning from the hospital, sharing that he “feels very blessed” for his colleague’s kind gesture.
“I’m not very lucky at the racetrack, one of my first loves, but so far with this medical lifeline that Samira has given me, it’s onward and upward,” he added.
In another letter to his coworkers Monday, Roth also raved about Jafari, saying, “It takes a special kind of person to keep another human being alive.”
He then thanked several other employees who volunteered for the kidney transplant but weren’t a blood or tissue match, the outlet states.
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He noted that the story is really about “how urgent the need is for live donors to ease the suffering of the over 100,000 desperately seeking an organ to survive.”
“The last few years have often left some of us feeling a little helpless. It was nice to just get to fix one thing in the world,” Jafari wrote onInstagram, thanking the transplant team at the Yale-New Haven medical center. “I’m grateful for that opportunity, now and always. Let’s try to fix one thing at a time.”
“I didn’t know I’d be donating a kidney during#NationalDonateLifeMonth, but so glad it worked out this way,” she added onTwitter. “Here’s how it happened — I’m cheering you on@RichardRothCNN! Appreciate all the love and support we’ve gotten🙏🏼.”
source: people.com
