Photo: Felix and Margaret Vazquez (left and center) and Allison Buell, life-saving kidney donor
After high school it’s easy to lose touch with friends and classmates, but for the Vazquez family, a reconnection between two women actually saved one of their husband’s lives.
More than 20 years after losing contact, Allison Buell and Margaret Vazquez (formerly Raduske) of Indiana reconnected after Buell saw an e-mail from a mutual friend mentioning Margaret’s husband. Buell says she immediately “friended” her childhood friend. She learned that Margaret’s husband, Felix, was in need of a kidney due to damage caused by diabetes.
Wanting to help, Buell decided to see a doctor to see if she’d be a match for Felix. When it turned out she was, the preparation began right away.
Buell told the Northwest Indiana Times she looked at the situation with the mindset, ‘I have a spare one. I might as well give it away.’
On Christmas Day, Felix Vazquez was able to leave the Northwestern Memorial Hospital with a new kidney, a new friend, and a life of more Christmases with his wife and family.
Though admittedly, the Vazquez family can never repay the gift Buell has given them, among the gifts they did give, one of them was a clock to signify the gift of time he has given their family.
