Andrew Dietz

A New Brighton man has a new lease on life — given to him by a friend who lost his life last weekend.

Andrew Dietz, 27, received a life-saving kidney from his longtime friend, Ryan Minett, after Minett was killed in a bizarre auto accident in Cranberry Township.

“This is the kind of story that inspires people,” said Rob Dietz, Andrew's father.

Andrew has focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, a leading cause of kidney failure in adults. The Dietz family learned about Andrew's condition when he was very young, but it only recently became an issue.

“We heard he could grow out of it,” Rob Dietz said.

Andrew became an outdoorsman, his father said — hunting, fishing and playing sports.

Last year all that changed when doctors found his FSGS had become life-threatening.

“Around April of last year, he had a physical and his blood pressure was like stroke range,” Rob Dietz said.

Andrew got on the transplant list and waited for his chance for a new kidney.

“The typical wait time is three to five years,” said Dr. Puneet Sood, medical director of Living Donor Kidney Program at Thomas E. Starzl Transplant Institute in Pittsburgh.

The only way to skip ahead would be to find a donor who specifically requested they donate to him.

Then on Saturday, Rob Dietz got a call from his daughter, Linsdey.

She told him about Ryan Minett — that he got into an accident and wouldn't survive, and that the Minetts remembered Andrew.

The Dietz family and the Minetts had been friends for nearly 20 years.

That Saturday, Andrew was rushed to the hospital and prepped for surgery.

Now Andrew could be going home in the next few days, although there'll still be many months of treatment and recovery.

Now his son is recovering and is set to come home soon, and Rob hopes Ryan Minett's donation will inspire others to register as organ donors as well.

“Donate. It's a check on your driver's license,” Dietz said. “It's just a checkbox. You can change lives.”

Read the full story Wednesday's Butler Eagle.