Selfless Action Woman donates kidney to man she hadn't met
Crystal Hazlett's selfless act five years ago cost her a kidney and her job, but she never regretted her decision.
In 2014, Hazlett, then 27, donated one of her kidneys to a man she only met once before the operation.
Nearly five years later, Hazlett recalled how the transplant came to be.
“I worked with a woman who went on dialysis for kidney failure,” said Hazlett, who now works as a branch administrator for Vector Security in Warrendale.
“She had made a Facebook post matching donors with patients on Facebook,” she said.
Hazlett of Hilliards clicked on a link, which led to the website MatchingDonors.com.
MatchingDonors is a nonprofit organization that helps find organ donors for people who require transplants. Hazlett read through some of the stories of people needing transplants.
“I thought I need to help, it broke my heart,” Hazlett said. “There are all these people in need. I can totally do this. I am going to move forward with this.”
As Hazlett was preparing to donate one of her kidneys, Richard Goldberg, 67, of Woodbridge, Conn., was seeking one after suffering end stage renal failure.
For Goldberg, a radiologist who retired in 2012, circumstances masked his kidney problems at first.
“I retired in 2012 not because of my illness, but because my wife had early onset dementia,” he said.
“I spent so much time paying attention to Barbara's health that I was just exhausted all the time, said Goldberg.
“The exhaustion was just something else,” he said, but it was a trip to Europe after his wife died that sent him to see his doctor.
Goldberg said, “ What really happened was I went to Europe with Lynne the woman I later married. I thought I took the wrong shoes.
“I thought I should have taken my ugly, old-man sneakers because I was getting so tired after walking half a block that I am sitting down in the street. I really felt that it was the shoes,” Goldberg said.
After getting back from his trip, Goldberg visited his doctor who sent him to a specialist who came up with the diagnosis of renal failure.
“They did a biopsy, but they don't know what caused it,” he said.
Despite the results, Goldberg went ahead with plans to marry Lynne Ditman, a woman he first met in 1965 when they were both 17 and working at a New Hampshire hotel.They had drifted apart, married other people and with the deaths of their spouses had reconnected and married on Aug. 24, 2014, even knowing of his kidney problems. Their wedding and its backstory were profiled in a New York Times Style section feature.In Pennsylvania, Hazlett had set up a profile on MatchingDonors and began receiving messages. After the first two potential kidney recipients who contacted her didn't work out because of either incompatible blood types or a hospital's reluctance to work with MatchingDonors, she was connected with Goldberg.“I didn't want to choose. I wanted it to be fate,” she said of the selection process.After the first two recipients fell through, Hazlett said, “I called Richard and started the process with him.”When talking to Goldberg, she immediately wanted to help.“I felt a connection. I knew something was there,” Hazlett said.“I flew out in June and underwent psychological testing,” said Hazlett.“She was just so 'la-de-dah' about it,” said Goldberg. “She was so matter-of-fact I'm amazed.”“I believe it's our responsibility to help each other,” Hazlett said. “I felt something and I had to run with it.”
Unfortunately, Hazlett said, her then employer told her that because of all the time she needed to take off, they couldn't hold her position for her. She lost the job but kept her resolve to donate a kidney.The operation was done Dec. 2, 2014, at Yale New Haven Hospital. She was hospitalized for a week after the transplant.Surgeons made three small incisions in Hazlett to do the surgery laparoscopically. Her kidney was removed from a larger incision near her stomach.In the aftermath of the operation, Hazlett doesn't think her life has been adversely affected by the loss of a kidney.“I go once a year for a blood test and urinalysis. It's not a big deal,” she said.The operation has left her with five small scars: a half-inch one on her navel, three on her right side and one below her stomach.For Goldberg, the operation has also been successful.“When you have a kidney transplant, they don't take them out. They put the new kidney in a different place,” he said. “The old ones, they eventually shrink.”“I have to take anti-rejection medications, but otherwise nothing has changed,” said Goldberg.After the transplant, Goldberg and Hazlett have stayed in each other's lives.“Crystal and I are in touch. One time she visited my home with both her children” said Goldberg.“Dr. Goldberg and I text, we talk on the phone,” said Hazlett.
And their lives keep intertwining in unexpected ways.Hazlett and her fiancé, Dustin Eckert, have set a wedding date of Aug. 24, which is the same date of Goldberg's wedding five years ago.Goldberg said, “She said she just randomly picked the date.”“I did not know that was the date. I found out after I sent him an invitation,” said Hazlett. “It's just another coincidence that ties us together.”That and what Goldberg sees as very large indebtedness.“It's hard to describe the debt I owe her. It's really hard.“Because of her I'm able to play golf and see my grandchildren” he said.“I want people to know about this. It's minimally invasive and it means the world to whoever you are able to help,” said Hazlett about organ donation.“It's a remarkable thing. I've had some tremendous ups and downs,” Goldberg said, “But my life has been saved by two women, Lynne and Crystal.”
