Coach Donates Kidney, Ascends Directly to Heaven

It’s frequently the case that the human interest-type stories one encounters are just naked attempts on the part of the news outlet in question to generate pathos and manipulate readerly emotions.

Other times, it happens that real life conspires to produce authentic instances of humans behaving well.

Conor Glassey’s story from today’s Baseball America represents the latter case.

In said story, Glassey introduces us to Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter, who literally gave a kidney to a freshman on his team, Kevin Jordan, after the latter had developed a rare illness affecting the organ.

Glassey writes:

Jordan moved from his hometown of Columbus, Ga., to Winston-Salem, N.C., for his freshman year in August. But two days before classes began, another doctor’s visit revealed his kidney function was down to 8 percent and a transplant was recommended as soon as possible.

When medical testing of Jordan’s family did not yield a good match, Walter stepped up to the plate to undergo the compatibility-testing process. The entire process took five weeks and the anxiety of not knowing what would happen was more stressful than deciding to start the process in the first place, Walter said.

Walter said that as soon as he had the support of his family, Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman and his team, donating a kidney to Jordan was a “no-brainer decision.”

“I would do anything to help any one of my players or any of my family members—anything in my power to help them have a better quality of life is something that I want to do,” Walter said. “Maybe it’s something as little as helping mentor them in their academic pursuits, or helping them choose a major, or something of a greater magnitude like this. My number one priorities in life are my family and my team and I’ll do anything to help any one of those people.”

Obviously, we can’t speak to Walter’s life in toto, but so far as conspicuous acts of generosity go, this is very clearly one of them.

More news like this, please!

H/T: Bad Badler