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Brooklyn Teen Finds Kidney Match, Donor On Web


A Brooklyn teen is getting a new kidney this week – thanks to a New Jersey teacher who’s so thrilled to donate that she feels like she “won the lottery.”

“She’s helping me become a new person,” said 13-year-old Sofia Manfredi of Bensonhurst, who has severe damage in both kidneys from complications during her birth.

Sofia has relied on medication throughout her childhood, but her undersize kidneys couldn’t keep up with the demands of her growing body.

Last summer, Sofia’s family reached out to Chaya Lipschutz, who runs a kidney-donation matchmaker website, SaveA Life-DonateAKidney.com.

Lipschutz, who donated a kidney to a stranger in 2005 after seeing an ad in a newspaper, started her website in 2009. She declined to say how many matches she has made.

But when she sent out an alert about Sofia on her Yahoo! group, Cherry Hill teacher Jennifer Rothstein, 39, immediately volunteered one of her kidneys.

“It just felt like it was the right thing to do,” said Rothstein, who has two sons, ages 12 and 15. “I was blessed with good health. There was no reason not to.”

Testing over the last few months revealed that Rothstein was a perfect match for Sofia, and the transplant surgery is scheduled for Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.

“I feel like I won the lottery,” said Rothstein, who is banking on a two-week recovery. “It’s like giving birth. It’s giving life.”

The Manfredi family couldn’t be happier.

“It’s amazing that someone I’d never met before could be so giving,” said the girl’s mom, Tami Manfredi, 39. “She is giving my daughter a second chance.”

(Source: NY Daily News)



4 Responses

  1. Jennifer Rothstein is performing an unbelievable mitzvah. I wish both of them a refuah shleima. Is there any way that we can get Hebrew names so that we can daven for both of them?

  2. Hi! I am the one who made Jennifer’s kidney match. She is truly an amazing person. Even though she is going to be giving a part of herself by donating a kidney – she told me she had a gift for the 13 year old she is going to be donating a kidney to! She is frum by the way, her recipient is not. (I don’t want people to think that I matched her up with a non-Jew, since the girl’s last name is not Jewish. Her mother is Jewish) Sofia’s Hebrew name is Batsheva bas Tamara.

    Thank you so much Yeshivah World for putting this article on your wonderful website! I hope as a result, more people will be inspired to donate a kidney!

    Mazal Bracha V’hatzlacha to all.

    Sincerely,

    Chaya Lipschutz
    KidneyMitzvah.com
    SaveALife-DonateAKidney.com

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