EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — A Long Island rabbi donated one of his kidneys this week to a 73-year-old member of his congregation.
Terri Davgin of East Hampton, who taught in New York City public schools for 33 years, told Newsday that she is grateful for Rabbi Aizik Baumgarten's generosity.
"I’m amazed. I’m flabbergasted," the retiree said over the phone Tuesday after being released from New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Saturday.
Baumgarten, who works at Chabad of the Hamptons and another Chabad center in Montauk during the summer, said donating one of his kidneys was an easy decision.
"What kind of a question is that — when someone calls you and says you have an opportunity to save someone's life?" he said.
Baumgarten, who works at Chabad of the Hamptons and another Chabad center in Montauk during the summer, said donating one of his kidneys was an easy decision.
The rabbi and Davgin, and their spouses, had been friends for about a decade when she and her husband, Richard, retired to East Hampton.
Davgin said she needed her first kidney transplant in 2016. Doctors told her about a year ago that she needed another one.
Last summer, the Chabad of the Hamptons was contacted by Renewal, a Brooklyn-based Jewish organization that helps link organ donors and recipients. The rabbi was among many who took a swab test to see if they could be a donor for Davgin.
"That part was easy," Baumgarten said. "This doesn't mean anything yet."
Months passed with no word, until Renewal workers called Baumgarten in March to say he was a match with Davgin and asked if he was still interested in donating a kidney.
He instantly responded and said he considered himself fortunate.
"It’s a great opportunity that God has bestowed upon me, to be able to save someone's life," Baumgarten added. "That's how I look at, it 100%."
However, he told doctors that he needed to do the transplant as soon as possible because he would be traveling to the Montauk Chabad for the summer.
According to Davgin, the hospital shifted the surgery date ahead to May 23, and just in time. She was deteriorating and was supposed to begin dialysis the next day.
She did not learn the identity of the donor until a few weeks before the operation.
"It really blew me away," Davgin said. "The idea that somebody who knows me and who I know and our involvement with the Chabad and it being the rabbi, it’s just the most special thing I could ever imagine."
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